Basking Ridge Residents Connect NJ Seniors To COVID Vaccines

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Some people have literally lost sleep to get New Jersey's seniors vaccinated. It's not just due to the stress but because they might refresh their page during late-night hours and finally find an available appointment.

Hillary Morgan knows what it takes, since she's connected several people 65 and over with vaccine appointments. As many seniors around New Jersey struggle to get inoculated, Morgan and several Basking Ridge residents have involved themselves in endeavors to get the shots in their arms.

"People are refreshing pages over and over, day and night," Morgan said. "Some of the places like the Meadowlands tend to open up appointments at around midnight. So people are staying up past their bedtimes to help connect seniors with appointments."

Morgan volunteers for the NJ Vaccine Matchmakers, a group that helps less tech-savvy seniors with the predominantly online process of finding appointments.

The Need for Matchmakers

State officials set up a COVID-19 registration page, which requires users about 15 minutes to fill out basic information and pre-register for vaccination when it becomes available.

New Jersey and the rest of the United States face vaccine shortages in the first months of inoculations. The state made people 65 and older and those with qualifying medical conditions eligible mid-January for vaccinations.

As newly eligible people tried and failed to secure appointments, Gov. Phil Murphy urged patience. He said more doses would solve the backlog.

"I cannot be any clearer," he said Jan. 30, "we built a vaccine infrastructure that can handle this job. We need the doses.”

But for many seniors throughout New Jersey, the issue hasn't been that simple. Many have found the need to register through other New Jersey facilities providing the vaccine, such as hospitals. Struggles for seniors include inability to maneuver the online process and failure to swipe up appointments when they become available. And even if they can find an appointment, some can't travel far.

Related article: Few COVID-19 Shots, Few Locations: Ocean Co. Seniors Beg For Help

That's where the "matchmakers" come in. WGIRLS Inc. — a volunteer program centered around empowering women and children in underserved communities — developed vaccine matchmaking initiatives in New Jersey and New York. (See links for the program below).

Singing up in New Jersey involves selecting a region. The Garden State has seven clusters of counties — one region comprises Somerset, Hunterdon and Mercer Counties.

The process for volunteers can involve using social media, managing spreadsheets, refreshing websites, staying on hold and staying up late. They also follow several "bots," which provide updates when appointments become available at certain locations.

A Basking Ridge resident developed one of those bots.

Building a Bot

Kenneth Hsu, a software architect, understands the urgency of getting seniors vaccinated. His grandmother had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Although she didn't die from COVID-19, it ultimately led to her death, Hsu says.

She was confined to a limited area and unable to get the exercise she needed. His grandmother also found it difficult to see her doctor — partly because she feared catching COVID-19 but also because of limited appointments due to social-distancing requirements. By the time she realized how much her health declined, it was too late. She lost her ability to stand and died a few weeks later.

"It was very hard because she was the center of our family," Hsu said. "She was the life of our family gatherings, and without her it just will never be the same."

Hsu says that young, healthy people shouldn't take vaccine appointments away from seniors, since there are many elderly individuals like his grandmother who need to leave home for the care they require.

Hsu discovered the difficulties of getting vaccinated when his parents-in-law tried securing appointments. They qualified for New Jersey's 1a phase of vaccination, which included health care personnel and longterm-care residents and staff.

Despite preregistering with the state in early January, Hsu's parents-in-law heard nothing back, he said. So Hsu took over their search.

"I joined a Facebook group called New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info and combed through the posts," Hsu told Patch. "Availability information is often posted in that group but Facebook does offer immediate notification of new posts. As someone who has a full time job, I missed those announcements all the time."

Hsu noticed two Twitter bots existed that found available appointments in Union and Bergen Counties, but both have residency and/or work requirements.

But Hsu, who has coded since age 10, realized he could create an automated service that served New Jersey more broadly. The Basking Ridge resident began with some "simple scripts" to check a couple sites for appointments, creating his first "mini bot" in less than a day.

Then he continued adding sites to refine what is now the Vaccine Bot NJ on Twitter, which provides instant updates on more than 25 locations throughout the Garden State.

"The truth is, the techniques to build the bot are not complicated and do not require you to be a seasoned developer," Hsu said. "However, it is time-consuming to study the behaviors of each of the vaccination center's appointment webpages and to determine which attributes and keywords would indicate availability."

He originally planned to only release the bot to the NJ Vaccine Matchmaters. But Hsu opened it up to the world when he saw how many people struggled with the same predicament of finding appointments for themselves or loved ones.

And it doesn't end there. Hsu created a group called Volunteer Coders Alliance of NJ. They're in the process of developing a website that will allow people to find the availability statuses of their closest vaccination centers.

Linking seniors to vaccine appointment has required some technological prowess. But all it takes, according to Morgan, is a desire to assist people.

"For now, if you can help, you should help," Morgan said. "I tell my kids that. I find myself in the position of having some skills needed to help some seniors in my community. I want to be able to do that."

Related links:

• Request help from the NJ Vaccine Matchmakers.
• Volunteer as a matchmaker.
• Vaccine Bot NJ website
• Vaccine Bot NJ Twitter
• Vaccine Bot NJ organizers shared The Ultimate Vaccine Appointment Guide.

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