Money9 Edit | Bots eating up vaccine slots

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A host of tech savvy groups of individuals as well as companies including the likes of PayTM have created what the government should have anticipated and accounted for – an easy way to find vaccine slots.

Bots, deployed by groups such as GetJab.in, VaccinateMe.in, city vaccine updaters as well as PayTM Covid-19 vaccine finder, crawl the CoWIN portal and upon discovery, tweet out vacant slots immediately.

Followers of the bots’ Twitter / Telegram handles immediately log back onto CoWIN or Aarogya Setu and book their vaccination appointment.

The need for these bots and their efficiency come into play with citizens finding it virtually impossible to find slots on the official government apps. On its part, the government launched the world’s largest vaccination drive, but without placing enough orders with vaccine manufacturers. At the same time, a hurried opening up of vaccines for 18+ has created a large gap between the enormous demand for vaccines and its miniscule supply.

In absolute numbers, according to Our World In Data, a research and data platform, at 133.85 million, India is second only to the United States in the total number of people who received at least one dose of the vaccine as on 11th May 2021. But at a marginally higher 152.12 million doses, US has one-dose vaccinated 45% of its population, while India stands at a meagre 9.7%.

Yes, ramping up vaccination and deploying technology for easy access to open slots is critical for a country of India’s size. But until then, the bots are shifting the playing field.

Some may see bots as the optimum use of technology in the pandemic, but if it becomes the norm – how will those with limited technology access get vaccinated? Will technology-divide result in jab-divide too?

Bots are welcome, but not at the cost of disrupting equitable distribution of limited vaccine supplies.