“I thought about taking a look and was surprised at how decentralized everything was and how there are thousands of different sites to visit,” said Adams. “I thought, ‘How can I put my software skills to use to improve this in my spare time?'”
Free time often happens when your newborn is asleep, Adams said. She said that her 2-year-old son is in daycare, so she is lucky not to care for them both during the day.
The inspiration came after listening to his mother-in-law, who had difficulty signing up for an appointment. Her mother-in-law is a qualified dental hygienist for the first phase of vaccination, she said.
“She had a little trouble figuring out where to go and how to apply,” said Adams. “She was able to do that, but it took a while and then she had the same problem when she managed to enroll her father when he became eligible at the start of our phase two.”
But, she never created such a website.
“This was the first time that I made a complicated website,” she said. “The hardest part about this is that every website that has free / busy information, I have to tell my computer how to read that website as a human. That’s where all the hours of work were done.”
Vaccination markings are available in several locations, from those administered by the state to those administered in supermarkets and pharmacies. Analyzing all the information from each provider is where it takes a little time, she said.
Adams has a script that runs every five minutes at about 20 different vaccine sites, she wrote in an email.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker was asked about the Adams vaccine website at a news conference on Friday. “Send us her name, we’ll talk to her,” said Baker on Friday.
CNN contacted the state for comment, but received no response.
Adams said he never expected his site to gain such popularity. She sent the link to friends and family and spread it from there.
“On Friday I would have told you, absolutely not,” she said. “I don’t have time to do that, but now the support has been overwhelming and there is clearly a need. I already have people from other states emailing me asking if it can be done where they are. I’d love to explore that and we’ll see what happens. “
Adams encourages others who might have an idea to help just try it out, she wrote by email.
“I encourage anyone who thinks they have an incomplete idea to go at full strength and will be surprised at how well it will look,” she wrote. “I built it for everyone, but I didn’t think everyone was going to use it.”