With the arrival of the vaccine for Covid-19 In the US, health departments in the state of Florida needed to find a practical and fast way to schedule vaccination appointments: the Eventbrite app (and website). The app was created to find events near the user on a specific date, such as concerts, festivals and parties. Now, Eventbrite is being used by authorities in some Florida counties to schedule vaccination appointments, initially for people over 65 and health care workers, as determined by the governor.
Initially, some counties in the US state set up hotlines to schedule appointments, but as happened in Brevard County, in the eastern part of the state, the lines were congested on the first day. According to Jesi Ray, a social media, marketing and communications specialist in Brevard, that's when they came up with the idea of using Eventbrite to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
“This is the best option we have right now. The quickest, easiest, most efficient way we can think of to help the health department address this issue,” Ray said.
Christopher Tittel, communications director for Manatee County, which is also using Eventbrite, said the faster the vaccines they received are used, the faster the county will have extra doses. In Brevard, available vaccination appointments filled up within 24 hours of starting to use the app.
Accessibility issues
But even with the ease of scheduling COVID-19 vaccines through Eventbrite, the app’s use by counties is not without its drawbacks. Older people may struggle to use the technology, for example, while poor local communities may have access to the internet.
The Brevard County representative’s response to the issue was not very reassuring: “We know that some people will not be able to schedule [their vaccine], but we need to get as many people as possible an appointment as quickly as possible.”
Eventbrite is available for Android e iOS.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Verge.
Featured image credits: Nataliya Vaitkevich (Pexels)