A new COVID-19 vaccine waiting list is being launched across the country to connect people with doses that would otherwise go to waste.
More than half a million people have already signed up for Dr. B, who sends text messages to users based on their eligibility status when there are extra doses nearby that are at risk of not being used.
Cyrus Massoumi, the founder of the site, said that Dr. B serves as a “way of helping people to help others”.
“You have people who want vaccines for themselves or their loved ones, and their vaccine providers want to do the right thing, but they need the right tools to address the operational challenges of vaccination across the country,” Massoumi told USA TODAY.
So far, Dr. B is helping people get vaccines through two providers in Arkansas and New York, but he will have 200 vaccination sites in 30 states using the tool in the coming weeks, said Massoumi, co-founder and former CEO of Zocdoc, the online medical appointment scheduling website.
While other tools collect information to help people find open vaccination schedules, Dr. B only aims to connect people with expiring doses.
Users sign up for Dr. B by giving the same information they would give to the local health department, Massoumi said. People are prioritized in groups based on how their local health departments determine eligibility. Within these groups, people are prioritized in the order in which they signed up for Dr. B.
According to the website, people will have 15 minutes to confirm that they can attend the vaccination site. They will then have about two hours to get there, says the website.
“The system is designed to ensure that no doses are missed,” said Massoumi.
‘Don’t waste a vaccine!’:After initial confusion, experts say it is always better to use the remaining photos than throw them away
After a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine is diluted or the first dose is withdrawn from any of the three vaccines authorized for use in the U.S., providers have six hours before the remaining doses are discarded.
The moment has created confusion in some vaccination sites, where providers must hurry to use the extra doses if someone cancels or does not show up.
In some cases, people were lucky and received the vaccine because they were around just before the dose expired. Some vaccination sites allow your staff to reach people they know who have not received the vaccine. Others can make people line up outside, in the hope that extra doses will be available. In some cases, doses have been dropped.
“You have all these results, none of which are ideal, none of which are efficient and none of which are equitable,” said Massoumi.
Dr. B, on the other hand, would help providers to connect with people in the area, first reaching those who are eligible and prioritized according to local guidelines, said Massoumi.
In some cases, especially those with shorter deadlines, several people may receive text messages to ensure that the vaccine will not be wasted. In addition, someone who is not prioritized can receive a vaccine through Dr. B, especially when time is tight, Massoumi said.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, said that a tool like Dr. B’s is “really serving an important role in the ecosystem” of vaccine delivery.
Similar services exist for other purposes, such as lotteries for Broadway tickets, Adalja said. If you can get a text saying that a pair of “Hamilton” tickets is available at the last minute, you should be able to get a text saying that a COVID-19 vaccine is also available, he said.
“The fact that we have these sites is good. It will decrease the chances that the vaccine will end up in the trash can,” said Adalja.
Public health experts have reached a consensus that administering a vaccine, even if someone is advancing in his or her priority position, is better than the dose being wasted.
In fact, the Center’s Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices issued guidelines recommending “a flexible approach” to the vaccine, especially when it was at risk of not being used.
‘Vaccine angels’: The US struggles to make it easier to find vaccination markings for COVID-19
Adalja also said that the benefit of giving more people the COVID-19 vaccine outweighs any potential privacy risk for a person who comes with a website like Dr. B.
Dr. B collects usernames, cell phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, zip codes, occupations and information about any underlying conditions that they may have that would place them in a highly eligible group to receive a COVID- vaccine. 19.
When a vaccine is made available, the information that a user shares with Dr. B is shared with the vaccine supplier. Massoumi said that user data is never shared with anyone and is not sold or used for advertising purposes.
The website states that it is not an entity covered by the Health Insurance Liability and Portability Act, the law that protects a patient’s privacy and access to their health information, but acts as if it were.
“People give more to their Apple iPhone every day,” added Adalja. “It is worth getting a vaccine and letting someone know my zip code.”
Contributing: Elizabeth Weise
This article was originally published in USA TODAY: COVID vaccine near me: Dr. B’s waiting list texts on unused vaccines