A website supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is trying to make it easier for Americans to find out where COVID-19 vaccines are available in their area.
VaccineFinder.org allows users to connect their postal code to search for COVID-19 vaccine suppliers close to them who may have doses in stock. Vaccine suppliers report their inventories to the site every 24 hours. The tool was made in partnership with CDC, Boston Children’s Hospital and Castlight Health.
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The site was originally developed in 2009 during the H1N1 flu pandemic and has since been used to provide information about the flu and routine vaccinations prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
It has now been reused to provide information about the coronavirus vaccine and currently includes the availability of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in more than 20,000 locations in various states. In most states, the site only provides information about chains of pharmacies and drugstores that are receiving vaccines from the federal government, although the tool provides information about hospitals, clinics and public health vaccination sites in Alaska, Indiana, Iowa and Tennessee, according to NPR.
“We are trying to create a reliable website and bring some order to all this chaos and confusion around availability,” John Brownstein, a researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital who operates the tool, told The New York Times.
Although users cannot schedule vaccine appointments directly through the vaccine tracking tool, the website directs them to the appropriate portal where they can register to be vaccinated and find information about local eligibility requirements.
The adapted tool was launched this week, and developers plan to expand it across the country in the coming weeks to include most vaccine providers if the program goes well, reports the Times.
According CDC, more than 66 million doses of COVID-19 have been administered until Thursday.
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