{"id":4297,"date":"2021-03-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/?post_type=customer-spotlight&p=4297"},"modified":"2025-05-06T20:04:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:04:44","slug":"findashot","status":"publish","type":"customer-spotlight","link":"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/findashot\/","title":{"rendered":"DreamHost User Makes It Easier to Get COVID-19 Vaccines with FindaShot.org"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Getting a COVID-19<\/a> vaccine can be a roller coaster of emotions. First, there\u2019s the thrill of knowing you\u2019re finally eligible. But once you start to search for an appointment, the frustration begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Newell<\/a> experienced this firsthand. Based in Dallas, Texas, his parents became eligible to receive the vaccine as part of phase 1B at the end of December. \u201cThe challenge began of finding a way to get my parents vaccinated,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the Texas Department of State Health Services, Newell knew which local pharmacies would receive doses of the vaccine. However, the local pharmacy chain didn\u2019t have one website where they could search for appointments at multiple locations at once. Instead, he had to check each location individually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat would mean we had to do 30 searches every time we were looking for appointments,\u201d Newell explains. \u201cI started building a toolset to search all of these locations automatically so that as soon as it became available then we could make an appointment. As I was figuring out how to make that work, I realized a lot of people are going to need this for several weeks or several months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why Newell created FindAShot.org<\/a> to help people easily find an appointment to get vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leave No Appointment Behind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Launched on January 6, Find A Shot regularly checks pharmacy COVID-19 vaccine appointment websites and shows the appointment availability status. The results can be found by searching by state, zip code, or using a user\u2019s location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newell, who is currently a part-time student enrolled in the Wharton School\u2019s MBA for Executives program and employed full-time at McAfee, is certainly earning his community service hours, as the project is completely led by volunteers. Find A Shot is funded through donations via their Buy Me A Coffee<\/a> page, which has raised more than $3k to keep the site running, with the typical donation at just $6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goal for Find A Shot is simple. \u201cThe big thing was to reduce frustration throughout the process, ensuring that people who want to find an appointment can find an appointment,\u201d Newell says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been spreading the word of Find A Shot with #LeaveNoAppointmentBehind<\/a> on social media. Of any vaccine finder, Find A Shot has the widest appointment availability coverage of pharmacies, currently covering 19,000 locations owned by CVS, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, Rite Aid, and Walgreens. They have listed appointments available in 47 states, along with Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico (New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Oklahoma are the exceptions.) In most cases, they get updates on availability every few minutes to an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges for Find A Shot is that most pharmacies have designed their appointment finders based on their flu shot scheduler and adapted them to COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are designed in such a way to be very local store centric, which is great for flu vaccines and tetanus shots or measles shots that have high supply relative to demand, but the challenge with the COVID-19 vaccine is supply is very constrained,\u201d Newell says. \u201cThe closest store won\u2019t have availability, which makes it challenging to search others. With Albertsons, for example, if I search my zip code, it will never return more than the six closest stores, even if there isn\u2019t availability. Either you need to figure out the closest zip codes in your area or you give up, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another benefit of Find A Shot is that it will cut down on vaccines that go to waste since it helps try to fill all appointment slots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA bigger concern from a logistics standpoint is taking appointments so you can line up people to thaw and open one vial of the vaccine \u2014 there are typically 10 doses for Moderna,\u201d Newell says. \u201cHopefully there will be zero no-shows so there won\u2019t be any wasted doses. When 10 appointments open up, as soon as you book an appointment, the dose is allocated to you. If an appointment goes unfilled, then that could mean the dose goes unused unless they can find a standby list. People want to get it, so we need to find a matchmaker to help them get to where there are appointments. In extreme cases, an unused dose could lead to costing lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related:<\/strong> How to Set up Curbside Pickup and Delivery Through Your Website<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using DreamHost to Power the Backend<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Newell has been a loyal DreamHost customer since 2007, so using DreamHost for Find A Shot was a no-brainer. \u201cI have a fantastic hosting plan and experience with DreamHost and I already have all of my personal projects on DreamHost, so naturally it\u2019s the first place I would go for adding another personal project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s a fan of DreamHost for the simplicity of setting up a new website<\/a>, particularly registering it, as his plan includes five free domain names, one of which is Find A Shot. Another point of appreciation is the flexibility, specifically with the types of websites or web applications you can host.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m using Python Flask and having that flexibility of not just a static website is really nice,\u201d he says. \u201cAdditionally, in a few clicks I\u2019ve got a database set up and can tie the Flask app directly into it, which accelerates the time it took to deploy \u2014 I was able to get it out really quickly.\u201d It only took a few business days for Newell to completely build Find A Shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another benefit of DreamHost that Newell appreciates is that there isn\u2019t a separate bill for bandwidth. \u201cNot having to worry about other charges and the fact that it\u2019s all-inclusive with the plan rate means that the costs are predictable, so I\u2019m not going to have any surprises on the bill,\u201d he says. The scalability is another plus, as Find A Shot recently hit 65,000 unique visitors without breaking the memory limit. Finally, DreamHost\u2019s support team is another element that makes Newell a loyal customer. \u201cThe support team has been phenomenal with getting back to me with details,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are on top of it, incredibly professional and easy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\n\t\t\tWhatever your online goals, we\u2019ll be right there with you, making sure your site is fast, secure, and always up. Plans start at $2.59\/mo.\n\t\t<\/p>\n\n\t\t \n Choose Your Plan <\/a>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Newell has volunteered countless hours to keep Find A Shot running, and the feedback from users makes it all worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll the heartwarming messages of support that we\u2019ve gotten is so rewarding,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople are appreciative \u2014 the frustration [of trying to book an appointment] can border on desperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newell has received loads of positive feedback. For example, one user said, \u201cThanks for this site!! I scheduled a lot of my parents\u2019 elderly friends that had no access or knowledge how. Thank you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some people, Find A Shot has been lifesaving. One user said, \u201cI live in NY and tried for weeks to get my 69 year old mom w\/chronic illness a shot in MA to no avail. I used your site once and had an appointment for her within 20 minutes. Thank you!!!!!!!!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Newell has always had one thing in mind for Find A Shot. \u201cUltimately the goal is to make the site obsolete because everyone has been able to get vaccinated,\u201d he says. Thanks to Find A Shot, that target gets a little closer every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine can be a roller coaster of emotions. First, there\u2019s the thrill of knowing you\u2019re finally eligible. But once you start to search for an appointment, the frustration begins. David Newell experienced this firsthand. Based in Dallas, Texas, his parents became eligible to receive the vaccine as part of phase 1B at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":4298,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"Find out how DreamHost customer David Newell developed the Find A Shot website to help people schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4297","customer-spotlight","type-customer-spotlight","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDreamHost User Makes It Easier to Get COVID-19 Vaccines with FindaShot.org - DreamHost<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Find out how DreamHost customer David Newell developed the Find A Shot website to help people schedule appointments for COVID-19 vaccinations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.dream.press\/news\/customer-spotlight\/findashot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DreamHost User Makes It Easier to Get COVID-19 Vaccines with FindaShot.org - 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