New York opened up vaccines to anyone over age 30. TurboVax, a free tool to find appointments, saw traffic skyrocket.
- TurboVax, a tool that helps people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments, has seen traffic skyrocket.
- The website's creator said traffic exploded after New York expanded its vaccine eligibility.
- The website said it saw 4.2 million page views on Tuesday, up from less than a million days before.
TurboVax, a free online tool that helps people find COVID-19 vaccine appointments, saw traffic skyrocket after New York opened its appointments up to anyone over 30-years-old.
The website, which specifically helps people find appointments from government-run vaccine sites in the New York City area, tweeted that it saw 4.2 million page views on Tuesday.
A graphic shared by the site showed that on March 28, traffic was less than 1 million page views.
But immediately after New York announced new eligibility, the traffic exploded.
"If only there were a proportionate amount of appts released yesterday!" the tool's account tweeted.
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TurboVax was created by Huge Ma, a 31-year-old AirBnb software engineer who decided to develop the website after having trouble making an appointment for his mother in January, according to a New York Times profile.
The free website compiles availability from state and city vaccine distributors in New York, and also sends updates on availability on Twitter.
He told the New York Times that he made the website in less than two weeks, and it cost less than $50.
He now has more than 157,000 followers on Twitter.