Facebook is launching a Covid-19 vaccine search tool to help people get vaccinated

CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new tool in a Facebook post, saying it will "show you when and where you can get vaccinated and provide links to make an appointment" The vaccine search tool is located in the Covid Information Center in the News Feed and is expanding to Instagram

The tool provides Facebook users with the location, hours of operation, contact information, and a link to make an appointment at a Covid-19 vaccination facility in their neighborhood The tool gets its location information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Finder

For now, Vaccine Finder is only available in the US, but it is available in 71 languages Facebook plans to expand to other countries once Vaccine becomes more widely available

The vaccine finder is similar to Facebook's blood donation feature, which helps users find places to donate blood in their area and receive notifications when a nearby blood donation center may need blood donations

Zuckerberg also said the technology giant is expanding the use of chatbots on its messaging service WhatsApp so that governments and health authorities can register people for vaccines In Buenos Aires, for example, city officials use WhatsApp chatbots to notify patients that they are eligible for vaccines

Facebook partnered with Boston Children's Hospital to develop the new tool John Brownstein, the hospital's chief innovation officer, noted in a statement that "improving vaccine access and equity across the country is an important step toward achieving mass immunity and ending this pandemic"

According to USA Today, about 21 percent of people in the US have received at least one vaccination, and about 113 percent are fully immunized