“I sent some basic information and, in the morning, I received a text message from someone who said, ‘You can bring it to Jackson [Health] this morning? “Said Thompson.” It was surreal because I was exploring all the avenues and then, all of a sudden, I had appointment confirmations. I was petrified, but I expected it to be real because of total despair. ”
“I was completely surprised,” said his mother, Sandra Wortzel, 75, who has never accessed Facebook. “I am not very good with the computer – and it has been very difficult for me and other older people to manage this process – but I am very grateful to have been vaccinated.”
Katherine Quirk, a nurse, and her fiance Russell Schwartz launched the South Florida Facebook page in January, after facing firsthand the challenges of registering Schwartz’s parents for a vaccine. They started sharing alerts on the page whenever they found that certain vaccine sites had vacancies, based on searches, phone calls and updates from medical sites. They also posted internal “tips” that Quirk learned from being in the medical community, as if a center was discreetly accepting visits after no-show appointments.
But when the vacancies opened, they filled immediately. Thus, the couple created a waiting list, collecting names and basic information, such as birthdays and addresses, of members of the group on Facebook. They would then register these people when consultations were available. With the help of some volunteers, the couple claims to have scheduled “thousands” of appointments in the past few weeks.
“We want to continue this after the vaccines are available for more,” said Quirk. “All we want is for people to be shot in the guns.”
“I don’t have a working e-mail or cell phone, so I wouldn’t be able to register on my own or get the vaccine so quickly … without their help,” said Sally Ebeling, 82, of Canton, New York, who doesn’t leaves his property since February 2020 and used the Elderly Association to make his appointment. “I’m going for my injection on Tuesday. A volunteer is taking me to take me to the pharmacy, ”she said.
Some elderly people are also receiving technical support from a better known source: their grandchildren. Missy Perez, social media manager at Philadelphia Phillies, said she spent most of a business meeting earlier this month updating a web page to register her grandmother and father in Florida. But the site continued to crash.
“My grandmother called earlier that morning frustrated and in tears with her attempts to log on, eventually receiving a message that she was prevented from trying many times – a message that she thought was specifically for her, without realizing many others were on the same page. boat, “Perez told CNN Business.
Her entire family helped, including Missy’s sister, who waited on hold for an hour before being disconnected. “I did a multitask and opened the link in the middle of Zoom’s call. I was so excited to be done that I screamed, mute, at my mom, who came running.” Her mother, unknowingly, stood at the back of the camera scene as they worked quickly to fill out the forms.
“Fortunately, I work with really wonderful people, so when I explained to the group what I was doing, they supported me a lot, cheering for me via Zoom,” she said. “They screamed and screamed as we set up two appointments.”