In less than a month, Selina Herrera registered over 600 people to get Covid-19 vaccine appointments in Texas' Rio Grande Valley area.
Her volunteer initiative began when Herrera, 26, took it upon herself to register her relatives because she was the tech savvy one in her family.
The Texas resident figured that if her Latino family had trouble finding appointments — and she had time to do it — she could register others who might have difficulty doing so, such as native Spanish speakers, the elderly or people with disabilities.
"There are just so many barriers, and this is the solution I had," Herrera said. "I could offer this."
"I've been fortunate enough to be able to catch these appointments for them, and I just have to thank my really fast thumbs and super speed internet, which I know many people may not have," she said.
Sitting in her living room on her iPhone, Herrera uses a Google form she created at the beginning of March to schedule the appointments. It includes basic contact and health information, as well as how far the applicant is willing to travel to get a vaccine.
Her daily routine involves working on this during her lunch hour or in the evening after her full-time job, which involves providing quality assessment for case workers who work with clients enrolled in government programs like SNAP or Medicaid. Her weekends are solely dedicated to going through her Google form to facilitate appointments, she said.
The majority of her applicants are Latinos, which isn't surprising given they account for the overwhelming majority of the population in the Rio Grande Valley, a region on the southern border of Texas above Mexico.
Many of the people she signed up came through people she knew. Sometimes an applicant was signed up by a relative who didn't know about her work, so they were surprised or taken aback when she'd inform them of their appointment.
To reassure people they could trust her, she put a brief bio on her form. Many experts have said that the best way to get vaccines to hard to reach communities is through trusted sources, which also protects people from potential scammers.
The CDC and government officials have issued warnings about people soliciting money or personal identification information to make appointments that turn out to be fake.
People should be cautious about clicking on links, downloading anything and turning over identifying information online or by phone without carefully checking out the legitimacy of who is asking for the information.