‘Very excited to be working ourselves out of a job’: Vaccine Hunters to wind down accounts that helped many find vaccines

After months of intense work to help Canadians find shots, the Vaccine Hunters are putting down their binoculars.

The volunteer group will shutter social media accounts at the end of the month and focus instead on a self-service tool, signalling a deeper shift in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, now that supply is no longer an issue.

We're moving into a different era," said member Sarah Nation.

There's not the same need as there was."

Launched in mid-March to connect eligible Canadians with vaccination appointments, Vaccine Hunters Canada became a one-stop-shop for shots, pulling in information from a myriad of sources on its popular Twitter account, with over 250,000 followers.

The group also hosted an unofficial digital hotline, with a small army of volunteers available to answer questions on the chat app Discord.

These resources, as well as the official Facebook, TikTok and Snapchat accounts, will not be updated after Aug. 31, according to Nation. But the Vaccine Hunters will keep a new tool, available in multiple languages, where individuals can punch in their postal code and see the nearest vaccine opportunity in real time.

The team, which at one point included about 150 people across the country, was busiest in the early needle-in-a-haystack days of the rollout, Nation said. Things ramped up again when accelerated second doses were announced.

But, with first doses plateauing at around 71 per cent of the population nationwide, and second doses sitting at 60 per cent, public health units are scaling down or shutting mass immunization clinics and shifting toward more targeted hyper-local approaches.

In Ontario, 80.7 per cent of those 12 and up have a first dose, and 70.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.

The challenge is no longer where to find a vaccine. It's now how to convince people who are hesitant, for whatever reason, to get one.

That was never our mission. And we're not science communicators or experts in that area," said Nation.

We're not qualified to tackle that."

Now that most people have gotten their shots, one-size-fits-all messaging is less helpful, said scientist and science communicator Samantha Yammine. Mobile, workplace, and specialized vaccine clinics, like one at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for people with anxiety, will help reach the last arms.

I don't think this is the symbol that we're done with vaccinations," she said of Vaccine Hunters winding down.

It's a sign that we need to have more tailored approaches."

But the group played a huge role in getting the country and province this far.

They were basically cheerleaders for people to get vaccinated," said Yammine, who goes by Science Sam" on social media.

This inspired a pay-it-forward culture" where individuals passed on their tips to family and friends, and that should be celebrated."

Volunteer Ofelia Tychon first got involved with the group in April after she and her husband moved to Toronto.

At first she hopped on the Discord channels to find where she could get her own vaccine. But she started jumping in to answer questions and was quickly invited to be a moderator. She also became a point person for connecting with hospitals and pop-up clinics.

Knowing that I could help other people, why wouldn't I?" said the 34-year-old who is in a graduate program studying the history of Mesopotamia at the University of Toronto.

It's hard to estimate how many people she helped find shots, but it's been a full-time job plus" for the past few months. She pointed people towards clinics that fit with their schedule, and directed them on topics like what documentation to bring, or what to do if they didn't have OHIP, sometimes in the middle of the night.

It's just if you don't know what is out there, you don't know where to look and you don't even know whether you should be looking for it," she said, noting many were asking for family or friends.

We were enabling other people to help their community. And that's been fantastic."

The city of Toronto officially partnered with Vaccine Hunters in April - Board of Health Chair and Ward 10 councillor Joe Cressy praised their efforts on Twitter Thursday as nothing short of heroic."

A few members even met virtually with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in May, and several fans have suggested they receive the Order of Canada.

There are lessons from the team's efforts that should inform future mass vaccination efforts, said Timothy Sly, an epidemiologist and professor at the School of Occupational and Public Health at Ryerson University.

Vaccine Hunters demonstrate that a national initiative, devoid of regional squabbling and political agendas, can get the job done effectively," he wrote in an email.

Real help, good communication, where it's needed."

The social media sites will be inactive, not deleted, in case they're ever needed again, Nation added.

Tychon said volunteers like her are ready to come back, for possible booster shots, or when kids under 12 are eligible.

But for now, what we're seeing in terms of, you know, a slowdown or a shift, that's how it was supposed to be, this is very much what we want," she said.

We are just very excited to be working ourselves out of a job."

May Warren is a Toronto-based breaking news reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @maywarren11