Tech Talker: Improving Vaccine Access
The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been far from perfect. Now the tech world is stepping in to help. NBC's Liz McLaughlin reports.
(NBC News) — The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been far from perfect.
Appointments offered online fill up within minutes, providers are inundated with calls and eligible patients aren’t sure where to go.
Now the tech world is stepping in to help.
Volunteers in California started crowdsourcing where the vaccine was in stock and aggregating that information on a dashboard, called “Vaccinateca.”
Similar efforts are underway in Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
“I think there is an extraordinarily important role for an all-hands approach to knowing where the vaccine is,” says Dr. Georges Benjamin of the American Public Health Association.
Software company ServiceNow is working on a mobile app to improve the appointment process, and Google has announced it will soon list vaccination sites in search and maps.
The company is also partnering with One Medical to offer up space for more vaccine sites in California, New York, and Washington.
“Our role here is to provide facilities, whether that’s a parking lot, or the first floor of a building, we’ll make that available,” says Dr. Karen DeSalvo, Google’s chief health officer.
Read more here.
