‘Guardian angels’
Volunteers helping people get their vax appointments
A group of volunteers is helping frustrated residents snag vaccine appointments by directly booking them on behalf of strangers who have been striking out during the state’s chaotic vax rollout.
The growing volunteer army — formed by a 32year-old Somerville woman on maternity leave — has led to 450 eligible vax residents scoring appointments since last Monday. They’ve received about 1,400 requests for help after a week.
“A couple hundred volunteers is nothing in the grand scheme of things and it won’t solve the system, but the individual impact is tremendous,” said Diana Rastegayeva, who launched the helpful website called “Massachusetts COVID Vaccination Help.”
The responses from grateful people after volunteers helped them land a vaccination slot have been “powerful” and “so heartening,” she said.
A resident said they had given up on trying to get through the state website maze until the volunteers “did the impossible,” Rastegayeva said. A person called the volunteers their “guardian angel.”
“I’ve had countless people cry to me on the phone,” she said. “They’ve talked about their frustrations and their anxiety. One person talked about not sleeping for three days trying to get an appointment for their husband who has a severe respiratory condition.”
Rastegayeva, the mother of a 4-year-old and 3month-old, started this effort after she helped her grandfather book a vaccination appointment in Florida in January. She also secured appointments through the complicated process for other family and friends who are not very tech savvy.
Rastegayeva looked into what the process was like in Massachusetts, and “realized it was even worse here.”
“How is it even possible that our rollout is worse than Florida’s?” she said.
“It’s so needlessly complicated.”
Rastegayeva as a result started an email list for friends and family to give them tips and tricks on how to score an appointment. She realized that was “small potatoes” and the need was so much greater across the state. She connected with other moms in a local Facebook group who were interested in volunteering to help people get appointments, and the website was born.
“It’s truly an incredible volunteer effort,” she said. “Volunteers are working on this for dozens of hours a week, staying up late until 2 in the morning.”
The volunteer group uses a combination of automat
ed alerts, manual refreshing, autofill apps, and “sheer persistence” to find and book vaccination appointments.
Rastegayeva has started a GoFundMe page to cover costs, such as web hosting and the automated alert services they use. The page has already raised nearly $3,000 as of Monday afternoon.
No one on the volunteer team will be making money from the effort, she said. All funds not used for direct support of the website will be donated to the Greater Boston Food Bank or similar organizations.
To get help with booking an appointment or to become a volunteer, visit macovidvaxhelp.com.