Mark Zuckerberg announces new Facebook tools to help people get vaccinated

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the company will be launching a global campaign to help people get vaccinated amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. “We’ve already connected over 2 billion people to authoritative Covid-19 information. Now that many countries are moving towards vaccinations for all adults, we’re working on tools to make it easier for everyone to get vaccinated as well,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.

Facebook will be using all three major platforms – Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to take the initiative further. Here’s what the company plans on doing.

Facebook vaccination tool

Facebook will be launching a new tool on the platform that will show users where and when they can go to get vaccinated. The tool will also provide users with a link to make an appointment. The tool will be visible in the COVID Information Center which will be visible in the Facebook News Feed. While the tool is limited to the US for now, Facebook says it will be supported in 71 different languages. It plans to expand to other countries as vaccines are available more widely. In India, vaccination is available for all citizens above 60 and those who are above 45 but suffering from comorbidity.

COVID News Center on Instagram

Facebook will also be bringing its COVID News Center to Instagram, allowing more people access to the COVID-related news update centre which will now also show vaccination-related information.

WhatsApp chatbots to help register for vaccines

Zuckerberg also mentioned in his post that the company will be working with health authorities and governments to expand their WhatsApp chatbots to help people register for vaccines. “More than 3 billion messages related to Covid have already been sent by governments, nonprofits and international organisations to citizens through official WhatsApp chatbots, so this update will help with the vaccination effort as well,” the post said.