Good Samaritans’ Facebook Group Helps Thousands Find Vaccine Appointments

By JOHN GALIETTA

Facebook user Rachel Castelino made a post yesterday detailing her experience getting the COVID-19 vaccine, at the Meadowlands mega vaccination site. She was thrilled with how smooth of a process her entire experience was, and signed off her post saying ” I know a lot of people had long waits at the Meadowlands but it was so fast and they have a lot of open slots. I made my appointment last night for first thing this morning. I’m so grateful to everyone in this group for the help and invaluable information!”

The Facebook posts are part of a group created by two siblings, Brandi Prell, and Brittany Prell Cohen, Wyckoff natives who saw a need to offer guidance for uninformed users. Brandi and Brittany, both teachers, created New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info, a Facebook group where users can ask questions about, and volunteer to assist one another with scheduling appointments to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

With the recent news that the state of New Jersey will be opening up eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine for all individuals age 16 on April 19, there are many more residents seeking information from online sources about how soon they can schedule an appointment and where.

New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info acts as an information aggregate where interested parties local and even beyond New Jersey can come to one central location for information instead of constantly refreshing various websites for the latest available appointments.

“We have a daily volunteer thread where if someone needs help, they can be right there and someone will reach out to help them find appointments. But it’s just a lot of people wanting to give back and to help others get vaccinated as fast as possible,” Brittany said in an interview for this article. 

Since the group was founded in January of 2021, New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info has ballooned in its size, going from around 65,000 members in mid-February to 138,600 members now near the end of April with more joining every day. As of April 28, over 3.1 million New Jerseyans have been fully vaccinated, 34.9% of the state’s population.

The response to the Facebook group has been resoundingly positive, with Governor Phil Murphy, himself, reaching out to them to offer his thanks. Although the group has grown in popularity since its creation at the beginning of the year, Brittany and Brandi were only inspired to do so after they saw the effectiveness of similar groups online.

The Group’s Origin

Brittany was desperately trying to find a COVID- 19 vaccine appointment for their grandma who lives down in South Florida and was struggling to find anything until one day she stumbled upon a Facebook group providing info for where people can go to schedule a vaccine appointment. 

She joined the group and made it her mission for the next two days to find her grandma an appointment and succeeded.

“I thought it was the coolest thing that I was able to get her an appointment, and I was even able to get her friend’s appointments. And then when it was time for us to find appointments for our family in New Jersey, I noticed that there was the same issue where there wasn’t a central database for people to look,” Brittany said.

“So I was searching Facebook again and I realized that no one had started a group yet. I was like, you know what? I need help,” she added. “I don’t know how to do this on my own. So I called Brandi and I was like, hey would you help me start this group? And that’s what happened.” 

After the two sisters formed the group, they quickly realized that they couldn’t moderate it all on their own. They requested volunteers that were already group members to help out.

 At one point, the group had over 25 moderators whose jobs were to scan the group all day long and to help make sure everyone is following the rules. The New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info group is solely meant for vaccine appointment information throughout the state, so moderators are very important for enforcing rules and making sure that people don’t stray away from its original purpose.

“We are not a political group, said Brandi, We’re not there for people to voice their opinions and so sometimes we have to delete some comments and we have to talk to people. And they have to follow our list of rules and if their post doesn’t follow the rules, then it can’t be shared.”

The Community Response

The New Jersey social media community appears to have embraced the group with many generous citizens contributing in a daily volunteer there. If someone needs help setting up an appointment, volunteers can be right there, and someone will reach out to help them find appointments. The group has even managed to attract some Facebook users from outside of the state of New Jersey. “We also get comments on our group all the time about like this group’s amazing how to like, is there one in Maryland?” said Brandi.