People Turn To Social Media To Find COVID Vaccine Appointments

CHARLOTTE, NC – As more and more people become eligible for a COVID vaccine, finding an open appointment is becoming quite the challenge. Many people are scrolling through web pages and joining social media groups that hunt down open slots. 

“There is absolutely a need for this across I would say the country,” said Brittany McCauley. She is the administrator for the Facebook Group NC/SC Vaccine Hunters. 

“We’ve added over half of that just in the last week and a half alone. So It’s grown a lot,” said McCauley. 

She says people are posting daily under the designated categories to help people in various situations find a shot. 

“Success that they’ve had with finding vaccine appointments. If somebody is canceling a vaccine appointment because they were able to get something else. They’re letting folks know so that they can try and hop online and get that,” said McCauley. 

The group continues to grow. People seeking out information from one page. 

“There really wasn’t a good centralized location for all of that information. And then getting that information, right, I think that is what is so critical,” said McCauley. 

“It’s been a little stressful. I’m not going to lie,” said Alex Portugal of South Charlotte. 

Portugal says she has spent weeks on the hunt for an open slot. 

“I was trying to find the fastest one and If I could get my hands on a Johnson & Johnson one so I could get it over with in one, that would be awesome. But I was really open to having whatever vaccine was available,” said Portugal. 

She finally got an appointment over an hour away from Charlotte, but kept searching. 

“I typically would look either really late at night or early in the morning and early in the morning seemed to work for me,” said Portugal. 

She says her system of refreshing pages worked. She got an appointment for this Friday in Charlotte. She cancelled her other appointment. 

“It was so nice to finally actually have the appointment,” said Portugal. 

Vaccine hunters are out there. Scouring websites and feverishly refreshing web pages.