The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine means that a ton of people will soon be looking for vaccination sites. As usual, Google wants to be at the center of getting people where they’re going, and in a new blog post, Google says it will start loading Search and Maps with information about vaccination locations. “In the coming weeks,” writes the company, “COVID-19 vaccination sites will be available on Google Search and Maps, starting with Arizona, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, with more states and countries to come.”
You will soon be able to search for “COVID vaccine” and get location results showing access requirements, scheduling information and whether a website has a drive-through. Google says it is partnering with Boston Children’s Hospital’s VaccineFinder.org, government agencies and retail pharmacies to get the data.
In other parts of the Google Empire, the company says it will open several Google facilities as vaccine sites.
To assist with vaccination efforts, starting in the United States, we will make some Google facilities available – such as buildings, parking lots and open spaces – as needed. These sites will be open to anyone eligible for the vaccine based on state and local guidelines. We will begin by partnering with healthcare provider One Medical and public health officials to open locations in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, California; Kirkland, Washington; and New York, with national expansion plans. We are working with local authorities to determine when sites can be opened based on local availability of the vaccine.
Google also says it plans to launch a “Get the Facts” campaign on its services, probably to counter the conspiracy theories that the company is often caught up in promoting through the YouTube algorithm. The post says the initiative will run on Google and YouTube to “release official information about vaccines”.