With complaints and frustration growing in Massachusetts about what some found a complicated and confusing vaccine application process, an Arlington woman decided to make it easier.
Olivia Adams, a software developer and mother of two young children, told us that she decided to create her own website after hearing from her mother-in-law about how difficult it was to find available vaccines and sign up for a consultation using Massachusetts’ portal.
“Although the state website is centrally located, there is a different website for each place, and they all operate a little differently,” said Adams. “And there’s no good way to say, ‘OK, what seats are available next week or how many slots are available? Am I wasting my time calling all the CVS around me to see what the hell is going on?'”
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The developer, during maternity leave from her work at athenahealth, created macovidvaccines.com, where the vaccine websites and their available times are all located on one page.
Adams said he has been working during his 2-month-old baby’s nap time and after the two children have gone to bed for the past three weeks. She estimates that it took about 40 hours or more to get the site up and running.
“It’s been a learning curve,” she said. “I’ve never made my own real website before, it’s so complicated, so it’s been a great learning experience for sure.”
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Adams acknowledges that the launch of the Massachusetts vaccine hotline announced by Governor Charlie Baker on Friday is a big step, but she doesn’t think it will go far enough.
“I think a lot of people want to have a website that they can see,” she said. “We have the technology. The resources haven’t been applied yet, so I really hope that it gets some traction and we are able to move somewhere with that.”
We asked Baker at Friday’s press conference at the call center if he would consider implementing Adams’s idea on the state’s website.
“Send us her name, we’ll talk to her,” replied Baker.
“I think the feedback we get from outsiders is extremely useful,” he added. “And if I were to sit here, I could go through a long list of adjustments, changes, modifications, reforms and new initiatives that were launched from the beginning that involve feedback from outside.”
Two representatives of the state of Massachusetts, Rep. Mike Connolly and Rep. Jay Livingstone, also took note of Adams’ initiative. They sent a joint letter on Saturday to Baker asking him to support her work and incorporate the project she created on the state’s official vaccine programming website.
Adams “is the vaccine hero we’ve all been waiting for !!” Conmolly said in a tweet, tagging her in the post.
Adams said he would be happy to meet with state officials if they get in touch.
“I’m 100% open,” she said. “Let’s get out of this mess as soon as possible.”
State lawmakers and residents have complained that the Massachusetts vaccination site is difficult to navigate. Adams says the problem goes to the top.
“The federal government kind of pressured the states to work on it and the states kind of told the others … we have our own sites, Fenway, Gillette, big like this, where they are working has that centralized place where you can look, but wherever you have the vaccines it’s like, here’s your stock, find out, “she said.” And that’s where the problem is spreading, this decentralization. It is very difficult for our residents to find out where to go. It’s definitely an organizational issue, but we can make it better … So, I hope we’re able to get more resources on it and that I can help whenever I can. “
Although she had a lot of fun creating her vaccination registration website, Adams says it’s a little crazy how many people contacted her to say that it was exactly what they wanted the state to provide.
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“It’s kind of crazy that after I started publicizing this, there was so much reach and so many people said, ‘This is what I was looking for, this is what I needed,'” she said. “And the state did not realize this and was unable to do this more centrally with resources other than me working at night during maternity leave.”
With maternity leave coming to an end, Adams said that if he has time to continue working there, his dream is that eventually people will be able to sign up and receive emails when more vaccine appointments are available in their area.