Facebook group helps seniors find COVID shots in their area

ORLANDO, Fla. - A Facebook group, Florida COVID Vaccine Information, is set up to inform the state's seniors how they can sign up for their shot.

"I think the biggest frustration is people don't know how to do it, or where to do it, or when to do it!" said physical therapist Eileen Branham, who started Facebook group. She often works with seniors and saw the trouble they were having getting the vaccine.
 
"Each county is doing things differently. Some counties are doing pop-up sites, some are doing drive-through sites, some are on a waiting list. So people don't know how to access the vaccine," Branham said.
 
Some people are also having trouble signing-up for the shots. The State of Florida has their own website to sign up for the COVID vaccine, but so do individual counties and municipalities. Also, Walmart, Publix, and Winn-Dixie have their own websites to sign up.
 
"It hasn't been very well organized in a way that seniors especially can manage it. Most of them are relying on family members to be able to help them access appointments," Branham said.
 
In the Facebook group, people can search for places to get the shot in their counties. They can also see regularly-updated information about where it's available and how to sign-up. But Branham said she wished the state would have designed a single well-managed website for everyone to sign up.
 
"Because of the way they rolled it out and each county decided how to they were going to do things, it led to this mass chaos," she said.

You can find the group here: Florida COVID Vaccine Information