[2021-12-29] Vaccine Hunters Canada
Last night, my son got his COVID vaccine booster. Tonight, my daughter got hers. Our efforts to secure appointments were made possible by Vaccine Hunters Canada, which helps eligible Canadians find appointments for COVID vaccines. The non-profit is made up of volunteers from across the country who "provide answers, information, and support to Canadians on several online platforms: Twitter, Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok."
I had heard of Vaccine Hunters Canada a few months ago but hadn't needed to use them to find appointments in the past, as I had always had success in obtaining appointments through the provincial booking system.
But with so many Ontarians becoming eligible for boosters all at once, the provincial system proved fruitless. No matter how many times I checked the system, the only message I saw for clinics in our region was that new times would be added soon. The first appointments my kids were able to book were in April, and that was through a pharmacy, not public health.
But on Sunday, I saw a Facebook post from a friend who was able to get his third dose of a COVID vaccine on Christmas Day thanks to Vaccine Hunters Canada "and their fantastic notification system."
That same day, Melanie, Shane and I joined the Vaccine Hunters Canada Discord group, which is a platform that supports group chats. I set up a Discord account (my kids already had accounts as they use the platform to communicate with friends). We selected our province and then the group chat for our region, namely, "eastern-on" (Eastern Ontario).
Within minutes, we were perusing messages from Vaccine Hunters Canada volunteers and fellow citizens in real time. They shared information on which organizations (e.g., pharmacy, public health) had available appointments, providing details on the vaccine type (e.g., Moderna, Pfizer), appointment type (e.g., scheduled timeslot, walk-in), location, date and time and, often, offering a direct link to the website where others could register for appointments. Citizens would announce if they were about to release an appointment and would share their experience of going to a particular place.
By Monday, my daughter had found appointments for both her and my son on January 5. She continued to follow the Discord group (and to share helpful information herself, corroborating or updating previous messages) and was able to get even earlier appointments. A week ago, I would not have thought it possible that Shane and Melanie would be able to obtain their boosters in December.
As I write this post, I am seeing more and more references to available appointments in my region in the coming days (not weeks or months). I imagine that the same is true across the country as provinces and territories ramp up their capacity to get shots in arms.
The December 2021 edition of Toronto Life magazine provides details on the genesis of Vaccine Hunters Canada and its mission. It's a fascinating story. Vaccine Hunters Canada traces its beginnings to March 2021, when web developer Andrew Young was struggling to find an appointment for a first dose of a COVID vaccine for his 75-year-old father. Amidst the chaos of those early days of inconsistent supply and different rules in various organizations, Young "created a computer script that would automatically check the websites of hospitals near his parents’ home so he’d immediately know when they updated their eligibility criteria and appointment information." It worked; within a couple of weeks, he had succeeded in booking an appointment for his father. That same day, he bought the domain name Vaccine Hunters Canada and set up Twitter and Discord accounts. In time, he expanded his script beyond Toronto to include hospitals in Durham and Peel regions (also in southern Ontario).
Young was joined by others: "In a matter of weeks, the organization swelled from a handful of volunteers to a collective of more than 100, with local contributors all across the country from British Columbia to Nova Scotia." They came from diverse backgrounds, such as teachers, students, coders, translators and doctors. "Many Vaccine Hunters joined out of self-interest—they just wanted to find vaccines for themselves and their families as quickly as possible—but most stayed on and continued to help out because the work was so fulfilling." No one received a salary, and Young directed all offers of financial support to Frontline Fund, a charity designed to benefit healthcare workers.
The Toronto Life article reminded me of the quote from Mr. Rogers that I shared in my post Inherently good:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of "disaster," I remember my mother's words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in this world.
I believe that Mr. Rogers would have approved of Vaccine Hunters Canada. As the Toronto Life article states:
He [Andrew Young] knew that humility was key to Vaccine Hunters’ success. It only worked if people subsumed themselves into a larger whole, if they temporarily gave up their individual needs and wants for the sake of the greater good. In a major crisis—natural disasters, war—human beings often organize, sacrifice and behave altruistically. This was largely true in the pandemic, too. There were countless acts of kindness, generosity and solidarity: community fridges, caremongering, free front-porch concerts, volunteer mask-making. Vaccine Hunters took all this benevolence and scaled it up—gloriously, heroically. As we all individually stumbled through the pandemic, they showed what we could achieve when we came together.
The article includes many more heartwarming details about the nature of support provided by Vaccine Hunters Canada volunteers, which goes far beyond online guidance. I encourage you to read the story.
More importantly, if you are struggling to find an appointment for a vaccine booster, check out Vaccine Hunters Canada. If my children's experience is typical, you may secure appointments in a matter of days, rather than weeks or months.
