This week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced two major expansions for vaccine eligibility. State residents age 30 and older became eligible starting on March 30, and residents age 16 and older became eligible starting on April 6.
The announcement inspired a surge in “very online” people booking appointments, Twitter comedy, and speculation about what else we might be able to push the increasingly scandal-embroiled Governor Cuomo to do (legalize weed, apparently!).
But most importantly, it allowed two of my favorite vaccine communicators to get their shots: Drew Armstrong, lead data wrangler for the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, and Huge Ma, computer engineer behind the TurboVax Twitter account, which shares available vaccine appointments in New York City.
If you’d like to learn more about Bloomberg’s tracker, check out the recording and recap of our first Diving into COVID-19 data workshop, at which Armstrong was a featured speaker. And if you’d like to learn more about TurboVax, check out this recent (and rather horny) profile in The Cut. Ma has been using his platform to spread awareness about anti-Asian racism and raise money for Welcome to Chinatown, an initiative to support Chinatown businesses. It’s a pretty cool organization; I recommend checking it out and donating if you can, especially if you (like me) used the TurboVax account to find your vaccine appointment.