{"id":19489,"date":"2021-02-23T17:01:12","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T17:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/?p=19489"},"modified":"2023-06-08T18:24:07","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T18:24:07","slug":"covidwa-vaccine-finder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder","title":{"rendered":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Ryan
Ryan Russell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A University of Washington Bothell computer science student is one of the volunteers in the Seattle tech community who helped take some of the frustration out of finding the COVID-19 vaccine with the free tool at CovidWA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Russell, a senior majoring in Computer Science & Software Engineering, joined with more than 100 people who quickly came together to develop the website that might be considered a shortcut to the \u201cvaccine game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game is what happens when a large number of people are looking for a limited supply of the drug on the state Department of Health website. The process is like a board game where a player moves a few places and then has to return to the beginning and start over \u2014 and over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It didn\u2019t take the local tech community long to see they could solve that problem. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compiling what is available <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A team organized and created an application that can “read” each vaccine provider’s website. Bringing availability status to a single website, CovidWA, makes it easier to find where the vaccine is available to schedule an appointment. Russell is one of the coders building the website readers. He also took part in planning meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCOVID-19 has flipped everything upside down and claimed many lives,\u201d said Russell. \u201cI\u2019m not a doctor, so this is my way of giving back, sitting behind a laptop and making change. That\u2019s my impact.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell was enlisted at the request of Maureen O’Hara, a member of the UW Bothell Chancellor\u2019s Advisory Board, a former Microsoft employee and a former UW faculty member. She joined the effort just days after the founders got together and helped launch it Feb. 10, initially serving King County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Hara put out a call for volunteers at UW Bothell through Dr. Wolf Yeigh, chancellor, and two other faculty members in the School of STEM: Dr. Bill Erdly, associate professor, and Dr. Arkady Retik, associate teaching professor. They in turn contacted Russell as president of the popular ACM club<\/a>, a chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery<\/a>, a national professional organization. Of a half-dozen students who were interested, Russell, who also works part time with a startup, has devoted the most time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to find the vaccine <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s assume you are tired of a year of social distancing, mask-wearing and self-isolating. You hear that vaccines have been shipped to Washington state. You\u2019re ready to play the vaccine game. First, you have to determine if you are eligible by going to the state Department of Health\u2019s website, the\u202fWA State Vaccine Phase Finder<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You answer a series of questions \u2014  zip code, age, living circumstances and general history of disease \u2014 to finally get to a page you can print to show eligibility. This is not an appointment.\u202fTo make an appointment, you must then find a vaccine provider by visiting another website,\u202fdoh.wa.gov\/VaccineLocations<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, you\u2019ll see a county-by-county list. You click on a county to see all the medical facilities and pharmacies where vaccinations are available. You click on each site, fill out more forms, and as you think you\u2019re reaching the end, you\u2019re told there are none available. Try again later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than 300 possible vaccination sites in Washington\u2019s 39 counties \u2014 80 alone in King County. Constantly refreshing the computer and starting the game over feels like playing a slot machine that never pays off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Hara said people who shared frustration and a Microsoft connection came together early in February with one idea, \u201cThere\u2019s got to be a better way.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coding a \u2018better way\u2019 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The founders are George Hu, Daniel Morris and Dmitry Grigorenko, who work or worked at Microsoft, plus Grigorenko\u2019s wife Olga Illarionova,  and Darren Lim, a student at MIT, said O\u2019Hara, who was one of the first to lend her efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quickly, volunteers from most every tech company in the area joined, and now there are more than 100 working on the new website at no charge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CovidWA.com now covers every county in the state. The team continues to improve the website, reaching out to marginalized communities, willing to cooperate with the state\u2019s Health Department and offering the software to problem-solvers in other states who would like to do the same thing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within two weeks of the website launch, people had come to CovidWA.com more than 1 million times. Thousands reached the coveted \u201cschedule\u201d button, and many left expressions of their grateful thanks on the website. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team can\u2019t say exactly how many people it\u2019s helping because it doesn\u2019t keep any records of the users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Russell, joining the team has not only been personally satisfying, but it also has added to his professional experience and given him a network of career contacts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As anyone who successfully finds a vaccination site knows, winning the vaccine game is a shot in the arm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
CovidWA code<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer Science & Software Engineering senior Ryan Russell is helping take some of the frustration out of finding a COVID-19 vaccination site as one of the volunteers running the free CovidWA.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_is_archived":false,"_archived_contact_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[202,218,249,252],"tags":[],"school":[421],"class_list":["post-19489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-news","category-community-engagement","category-coronavirus","category-population-health","school-school-of-stem"],"acf":{"related_links":{"toggle_visibility":false,"link_1":"","link_2":"","link_3":"","link_4":"","link_5":""},"highlight_box":{"toggle_visibility":false,"title":"","content":"","button":"","button_style":"angled-purple-button","button_screen_reader_text":""},"contact_type_1":{"toggle_visibility":true,"contact_title":"Contact Us","email":"test@uwb.edu","phone":"(206) 999-1234","box":"Box 358500","address_line_1":"18115 Campus Way NE","address_line_2":"Bothell, WA 98011-8246","location":""},"contact_type_2":{"toggle_visibility":false,"contact_title":"","email":"","phone":"","box":"","address_line_1":"","address_line_2":"","location":""},"social_media":{"toggle_visibility":false,"facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","linkedin_url":"","twitter_url":"","youtube_url":""},"blog_archive_sidebar_visibility":false},"yoast_head":"\nCSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Computer Science & Software Engineering senior Ryan Russell is helping take some of the frustration out of finding a COVID-19 vaccination site as one of the volunteers running the free CovidWA.com.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\"},\"wordCount\":897,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Campus News\",\"Community Engagement\",\"Coronavirus\",\"Population Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\",\"name\":\"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg\",\"width\":536,\"height\":406},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"Just another UW Bothell site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/author\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News","og_description":"Computer Science & Software Engineering senior Ryan Russell is helping take some of the frustration out of finding a COVID-19 vaccination site as one of the volunteers running the free CovidWA.com.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder","og_site_name":"News","article_published_time":"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website","datePublished":"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder"},"wordCount":897,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg","articleSection":["Campus News","Community Engagement","Coronavirus","Population Health"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder","url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder","name":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website - News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg","datePublished":"2021-02-23T17:01:12+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-08T18:24:07+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/05\/COVIDWA-logo.jpg","width":536,"height":406},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/23\/covidwa-vaccine-finder#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"CSSE major helps with vaccine-finding website"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/","name":"News","description":"Just another UW Bothell site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/author"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29352,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19489\/revisions\/29352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19489"},{"taxonomy":"school","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uwb.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/school?post=19489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}