New York Never Built a Good System for Scheduling Vaccine Appointments, so a Random Software Engineer Did It in His Spare Time
Why didn't Cuomo and De Blasio build a decent, user-friendly website?

Last month, I sat in my Brooklyn apartment and used all the colorful language I know to curse the state of New York's horribly complex maze of vaccine appointment scheduling websites. My in-laws, who are in their 70s, had just become eligible to get vaccinated, and securing appointments for them was my highest priority. Scheduling that appointment has proven to be incredibly complicated. Despite having many months to prepare, New York government's digital infrastructure has proven inadequate for handling a predictably large amount of demand for vaccinations.
When the government failed, a 31-year-old software engineer came to the rescue. Using just $50 and two weeks of time, New York resident and Airbnb engineer Huge Ma built a competing product called TurboVax which collects appointment availability information from NYC Vaccine Hub (the scheduler for 16 vaccination sites), NYC Health and Hospitals (21 sites), and NYS Vaccination Centers (6 sites).
He also built a bot that tweets out appointments when available:
[NYC H+H · Brooklyn] Woodhull Hospital: 41 appts
Feb 11 – 7:00AM, 7:15AM, 7:30AM, 7:45AM and 37 morehttps://t.co/iVRnr1hjSf
— Huge Ma (@turbovax) February 10, 2021
TurboVax does not book appointments on a patient's behalf, but it does let patients know where there is availability and directs them to the appropriate website. Many of the existing government-run websites fail to notify patients when new appointments open up; TurboVax's tweetbot remedies that. Of course, TurboVax's innovation in terms of letting users know which appointments are available (and where) doesn't change the fact that vaccines are still incredibly scarce, with strict rules that govern who is allowed to receive them.
"This wasn't a priority for governments, which was unfortunate," Ma told The New York Times earlier this week. "But everyone has a role to play in the pandemic, and I'm just doing the very little that I can to make it a little bit easier."
It's unclear why it wasn't a priority for governments. New York's failure at both the city and state level to create an easy, centralized appointment-booking system—ideally one that's accessible to seniors, who are currently eligible for vaccines and at the highest risk of dying from COVID-19—is yet another example of how central planners have screwed up every step of the way.
Of course, Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio aren't the only ones royally flubbing the COVID response. Governors and mayors across the country are creating pandemic rules for the little people—ones they certainly couldn't be expected to follow themselves—and instituting new rounds of lockdowns while botching vaccine rollout and failing to collect data on just how many precious doses are being thrown away.
Nationally, it's been a harrowing struggle to attempt to reach herd immunity as new COVID variants circulate in the general population. If we do end up getting a significant-enough swath of the population vaccinated in a timely manner, it will be at least partially because private citizens like Huge Ma stepped up to the plate and delivered where government failed.
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According to CDC data, 27.8 million Americans have tested positive for covid.
But according to a recent CDC estimate (that Reason hasn’t even informed readers about), 4.6 times more Americans have been infected with covid (than have tested positive for covid), indicating that 127.9 million Americans (i.e. 38.75%) have been infected with covid.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/burden.html#anchor_1607017301754
Since more than 99.99% of those who were infected with covid remain immune from the virus (as only 5 Americans out of 27.8 million who were infected have been reinfected with the virus), 38.75% of Americans are now immune from covid (i.e. they cannot contract or transmit the virus) simply because they were previously infected. But the news media refuses to admit this fact.
Amazingly (or not), an NBC article exposing that just 1 out of every 5 million Americans who were infected with covid became reinfected was deceitfully titled and written to make gullible readers believe that reinfection with covid was very common.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-reinfections-may-be-more-common-realized-why-isn-t-n1256898
Perhaps even more amazingly (or not), last night on Fox News, Anthony Fauci was asked by Bret Baier what percentage of people who have been infected with covid are now immune, Fauci falsely claimed “we don’t know”, and then began talking about expanding vaccines.
Fauci is lying again, as he knows that previously virus infections virtually always result in immunity. But Fauci and his friends at Big Pharma, Big Medicine and Big Tech want to give all Americans vaccines.
States with the highest covid case rates, and with CDC’s estimated mean infection rate (i.e. 4.6 times the case rate) and CDC’s estimated 95% range for infection rate, are:
Case Rate – State — Estimated Mean Infection Rate (95% Range )
12.9% – North Dakota — 59.2% (51.5% – 69.5%)
12.4% – South Dakota — 56.9% (49.5% – 66.8%)
11.3% – Rhode Island — 51.8% (45.1% – 60.9%
11.1% – Utah — 51.1% (44.4% – 60.0%)
10.9% – Tennessee — 50.4% (43.8% – 59.1)
10.8% – Arizona — 49.8% (43.3% – 58.4%)
10.3% – Wisconsin — 47.6% (41.4% – 55.8%)
10.3% – Iowa — 47.6% (41.4% – 55.8%)
10.3% – Oklahoma — 47.2% (41.0% – 55.4%)
10.2% – Arkansas — 47.1% (40.9% – 55.2%)
10.0% – Nebraska — 46.2% (40.2% – 54.2%)
Since herd immunity occurs when/after two thirds of the population (of a community, county or state) have been infected, a dozen states are very close to achieving herd immunity since an additional 5% – 10% of people in states have received vaccines, which also confers immunity.
So why won’t anyone in the news media (including Reason) even discuss this very important information?
States with the most significant declines in new covid cases are:
North Dakota -98.6%
Wyoming -93.0%
South Dakota -92.1%
Minnesota -89.3%
Nebraska -88.5%
Wisconsin -88.1%
Iowa -87.7%
Kansas -87.7%
Michigan -87.3%
New Mexico -86.1%
Montana – 84.0%
Illinois -82.1%
California -78.2%
Tennessee -78.1%
Colorado -78.0%
Alaska -77.9%
Nevada -76.1%
Indiana -75.7%
Utah -75.0%
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases-50-states/ohio
To see which counties have or are now achieving herd immunity, just go to
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map
and look at all of the purple counties (as even the lighter shaded purple counties are very close to achieving herd immunity).
Although the evidence clearly indicates that more than 99.99% of Americans who were infected with covid remain immune (i.e. as only 5 out of 27 million have been reinfected), CDC continues to commit public health malpractice by:
- refusing to inform Americans of this very important information,
- encouraging/allowing previously infected people to get vaccines,
- requiring covid recoverers and vaccine recipients to wear masks, remain socially distant from others, and comply with all covid related lockdowns, crowd limits and other mandates.
I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.
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Keeping people in a state of alarm allows for continued control in the hands of the ruling class - I am beginning to doubt all of the official numbers, including the CDC - often I wonder if in 2020, people died of anything other than the corona virus disease caused by a virus called sarscov2. And yes, it is despicable that people who are supposed to know will not admit that once infected, you are indeed immune - and perhaps even better than if you were vaccinated. The WHO changed their website headings - it had mentioned herd immunity at some level of community infection and changed it to say that only vaccination can help with developing herd immunity. Truth in science and analytics has been beaten to a pulp and charlatans seem to reign supreme and so many in the public remain cowed down by fear. And I am not even going to get into the issue of cycle time/thresholds (Ct) values used in PCR testing - the pollution of the scientific process and analytics is not good for anyone.
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Been saying since December that we were rapidly approaching herd immunity (at least for lockdown behavior) and we appear to have hit it in a few states at least. North Dakota is hard to explain using any other factor without herd immunity.
But I think the media and CDC is extremely reluctant to tell people we are close to herd immunity in places.
1> There is still a possibility that one of these variants (The South African one in particular) could re-infect people who are immune to the mainstream strains.
2> There are lot of places in the US that are NOWHERE near herd immunity. A hell of a lot of Americans don't understand Nuance, and even though we have hit herd immunity in North and South Dakota (and very soon Arizona, Rhode Island, and Utah), people in Vermont and Washington and other lighter states have only had about 1/3 the amount of people infected, and having them all start having COVID parties to get it over with would be disastrous.
But the thing is, Americans have ben watching the numbers, and some of the more ignorant ones might attribute the rapid decline in spread to vaccines that had barely even been administered (I am talking 2nd week of January where cases began dropping like a rock, while we only had 2-3% of the population half vaccinated), but it won't be long until the numbers are so low, you won't be able to keep people locked up indoors, especially as the spring hits.
In reality the Vaccines were too late to actually prevent us from getting mostly to herd immunity the hard way, but those vaccines may snuff it out enough to reduce the spread before we end up with a mutation that will put us right back in these ridiculous lockdowns.
Why is it that calling it Wuhan virus is racist, but talking about the UK or South African variant is perfectly fine?
Because political correctness is stupid.
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> Fauci is lying again, as he knows that previously virus infections virtually always result in immunity.
This is not true. Past infections do not result in permanent immunity. Shingles is the classic example. But even the common flu requires yearly vaccinations. Sure the flu varies a lot, but the same variety continues to pop up every few years.
And there's quite a bit of evidence that the kind of vaccination done for COVID-19 only lasts so long. Perhaps as short as nine months. So when Fauci says he does not know, he is not lying. We don't have good numbers yet as to the "immunity" conferred by these two vaccines.
There is evidence that people without exposure to sarscov2 may have immunity to sarscov2 - because of cross-reactivity with other corona viruses - Merck stopped their trials because they discovered that THEIR vaccines were less effective than wild/type infections (immune response). We do not know how long any infection related immunity will last - but to demand that everyone get a vaccine even if infected goes against most everything we do know about viruses, vaccines and this particular virus.
Why would the rules for COVID be different than the Spanish Flu?
And by the by, just do a little googling on how the world is 'permanently changed' because of COVID-- and it's fucking scary.
Life will never be the same.
In summation, AI, green revolutions, and permanent removal of cars from the roads... I weep for my children.
Look up the Great Reset, realize that is the reality progressives are actively pursuing, then maybe you'll weep for the rest of us and not just your children.
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Maybe not "lying", but it is a weaselly argument (not yours, I know, but when it comes from epidemiologists and people who should know better). Yes, permanent immunity from is rare anyways, but you must keep a few things in mind:
1. Immunity is not a Boolean value. You can have some immunity and still get infected, but the chance that infection is BAD is reduced.
2. Immunity is not lost at the same rates by everyone, so you will not see an epidemic of the same strain again once herd immunity is achieved (by infection or by disease). So even if immunity lasts "only nine months," that's really 7-11 months, meaning the disease would wash through again slowly as people start to lose immunity, and point 1 comes into effect.
3. We do know immunity conferred by actual infection is at least nine months, and can say with confidence that if antibody decay is a major factor in imminent reinfection, it has yet to show up, meaning that the leading edge of that curve in 2 hasn't arrived, so the mean value is further off.
Some early studies in antigen decay suggested a halflife of 26-60 days in mild cases (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2025179), which would still confer many months of immunity. But more recent studies show that this might just be an early onset decay, and later decay is much slower (https://www.cell.com/med/pdf/S2666-6340(21)00035-0.pdf).
So obviously we still don't know how long immunity lasts, per se, but any statement to that effect is fear-mongering if it does not at least acknowledge that the science actually looks pretty promising that future COVD-19 infections will be less severe on average and, absent mutation which can occur in any virus, not on epidemic levels after initial herd immunity is achieved.
I had links here, but the comment got caught in "awaiting moderation" limbo. Replaced links with paper titles, sorry.
Maybe not “lying”, but it is a weaselly argument (not yours, I know, but when it comes from epidemiologists and people who should know better). Yes, permanent immunity from is rare anyways, but you must keep a few things in mind:
1. Immunity is not a Boolean value. You can have some immunity and still get infected, but the chance that infection is BAD is reduced.
2. Immunity is not lost at the same rates by everyone, so you will not see an epidemic of the same strain again once herd immunity is achieved (by infection or by disease). So even if immunity lasts “only nine months,” that’s really 7-11 months, meaning the disease would wash through again slowly as people start to lose immunity, and point 1 comes into effect.
3. We do know immunity conferred by actual infection is at least nine months, and can say with confidence that if antibody decay is a major factor in imminent reinfection, it has yet to show up, meaning that the leading edge of that curve in 2 hasn’t arrived, so the mean value is further off.
Some early studies in antigen decay suggested a halflife of 26-60 days in mild cases (Rapid Decay of Anti–SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in Persons with Mild Covid-19), which would still confer many months of immunity. But more recent studies show that this might just be an early onset decay, and later decay is much slower (Stable neutralizing antibody levels 6 months after mild and severe COVID-19 episodes).
So obviously we still don’t know how long immunity lasts, per se, but any statement to that effect is fear-mongering if it does not at least acknowledge that the science actually looks pretty promising that future COVD-19 infections will be less severe on average and, absent mutation which can occur in any virus, not on epidemic levels after initial herd immunity is achieved.
While 5 Americans are known to have been reinfected with covid (out of 27+ million who tested positive), 37 people in other countries are also known to have been reinfected (out of 92 million who tested positive).
https://bnonews.com/index.php/2020/08/covid-19-reinfection-tracker/
So the evidence is consistent, as >99.99% of people who were previously infected with covid remain immune.
Reinfection is apparently far more common with the South Africa variant.
Vaccination efforts could pivot in weeks to counter it, but our overly risk-averse health bureaucracy likely won't let that occur, especially since that has the added benefit of prolonging the crisis.
Of course, there's reinfection and there's reinfection - COVID is going to be around forever, but subsequent seasons almost assuredly won't be as widespread or severe in subsequent years since once all of us are acclimated to it one way or another.
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Why didn't Cuomo and De Blasio build a decent, user-friendly website?
If you made it easy on the people, they might realize how malevolent these two are?
Plus, democrats fail upwards. So the biggest idiots end up at the top.
Most corrupt and most easily controlled. All major Democratic politicians have this in common. It's why Gabbard never had a chance.
The People's Republic of NJ is no better. The staggering level of incompetence and negligence is borderline criminal.
Phailing Phil Murphy, the governor, should be recalled and prosecuted, along with the harpy who pretends to be a health commissioner. They are responsible for thousands of deaths with the insane policy of putting covid-19 patients into nursing homes.
May their souls be damned for all time.
homicidally insane
Yeah. "Well, they knew the press would not give two shits" is the reason they did not.
What a question. Is anyone surprised to find that Cuomo and De Blasio are incompetent?
Arrest him for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
With a modifier for showing up an Emmy-award winner.
This was my first thought. I would not be surprised at all if his house and business are raided by a joint NYPD/DOJ/FBI task force.
In other news, Airbnb engineer Huge Ma, who built TurboVax has been reported missing. Police are baffled by his disappearance.
However, authorities attribute it to the novel coronavirus.
New York resident and Airbnb engineer Huge Ma built a competing product called TurboVax
Your Ma is so Huge...
...when she sits around the house-she sits around the house.
Why because they are assholes who don't give a shit.
Why didn't Cuomo and De Blasio build a decent, user-friendly website? Why would they? What's in it for them? Do you think giving a shit somehow pays better than not giving a shit? They're government employees, what are you going to do, fire them?
Because, fuck you, that's why.
lol... +100
But Cuomo won an Emmy award! That is far more important to humanity than building a website that helps you make a vaccine appointment.
I mean come on. Next thing you'll tell me is that government officials should worry about driving out their tax base so they have revenue to pay for all the government goodies. EVERYONE knows that what you should do is harangue the greedy rich, so they flee to Florida or Texas. Cuomo and DiBlasio sure know that.
No worries. Sloppy Joe'll cover their expenses.
I wish we had a free market instead of volunteers papering over the fundamental inefficiencies of government rationing.
^THIS
"Why didn't Cuomo and De Blasio build a decent, user-friendly website?"
I'll be generous and assume this is a rhetorical question.
Personally I'm waiting for a punch line.
"Take my wife. Please"
Prolly as good as either of those lefty shits could deliver.
There are a lot of dumb politicians in the United States but perhaps the dumbest of all is Massachusetts' state Rep Mike Connolly.
Mike "Our Revolution" Connolly used this government fiasco as an example of why we should expand the government:
"It’s as if 3+ decades of punishing austerity and ardent neoliberalism have left government completely incapable of functioning.
When I see stories like this my first thought is #TaxTheRich and grow the public sector..."
Link: https://twitter.com/MikeConnollyMA/status/1359317002649755649?s=20
Fat Mike represents Somerville and Cambridge MA, the looniest blue cities east of Berkeley CA.
Abbreviated but still accurate headline
"New York Never Built a Good System"
Because goobermint.
Oh, come on. Only big Progressive government can do anything right (say the big government Progressives).
NY has the second worst death rate in the country, next to New Jersey. You’d think they’d care.
Obama, "YOU DIDN'T BUILD THAT!!!!!"
Yeah, it took the state to provide the roads to get the food to the supermarkets...........
Fucking lefty shit...
Why otherwise intelligent wife exposes herself to that vapid BS is a mystery, but my work in the kitchen is done, she's working on her stuff and watching the theater which passes for TV news.
Pretty sure it sounded like we are all going to be required to wear *two* masks.
Wife is certainly not any sort of 'useful idiot', but is less rebellious than am I, but this hits the limit: Nope.
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How does a normal, everyday kind of software engineer become a 'random software engineer?'
Liberal use of the srand() and rand() functions.
No self-respecting software engineer would use those.
"It's unclear why it wasn't a priority for governments."
Really?
"Why didn’t Cuomo and De Blasio build a decent, user-friendly website?"
They didn't learn to code?
Seriously, there probably wasn't time to organize software developers into NY-recognized unions, pay unionized government workers to create RFPs and review the proposals (favoring minority and woman-owned businesses, of course) to let a $100M software development contract that would balloon into $500M and never get completed.
Software tossed together in a few days for a vaccination site would nicely parallel the software that was used to create one of the early COVID models nicely...
http://www.sph.umn.edu/news/modeling-covid-19-for-minnesota/
Before Friday, March 20, Marina Kirkeide, who graduated from the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering in 2019, was a School of Public Health part-time research assistant working on HPV transmission for Kulasingam. On a gap year before starting Medical School at the University in fall 2020, Kirkeide also had a second job as a lab tech at St. Paul’s Regions Hospital. That Friday, Kulasingam called her and two other research assistants and asked if anyone was available to “work through the day and night” to get a COVID-19 model to Governor Walz the following Monday. They all jumped at the chance.
“I don’t think a lot of researchers get to work on something over the weekend and have public figures talk about it and make decisions based on it three days later,” says Kirkeide, who had to leave her hospital job to focus solely on modeling. She feels the responsibility of such a big project, too. “[In this situation] you don’t have the time to validate as much as you normally would. You want to get it right the first time. And your work has to be really, really quick.”
From day one, Der Fuhrer Cuomo has mismanaged this covid pandemic. He must be removed from office and prosecuted for the 8,700, and counting, nursing homes deaths. This is a result of Cuomo's March 24th edict forcing covid hospital patients to be transfered into NYC area nursing homes. Henrich Himmler, who forced the Jews into concentration camps, would be proud of him.
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