TORONTO -- Thousands of Canadians are receiving crucial vaccine information thanks to an online group of volunteers.
Jonathan Clodman, 26, is one of four official members behind a grassroots Twitter page called Vaccine Hunters Canada.
Between his full-time job and volunteer work, he says he spends a lot of his day online.
“Answering DMs and emails from people across the country who are saying ‘hey I’d like a vaccine, here’s my information, how can you help me?'” he said.
Clodman said he's lost count of how many hours he’s put into the project.
“It’s certainly been a couple weeks of some really late nights.”
He says he flips between online tools like Tweet Deck, Reddit and Discord to get the latest information.
“Discord is basically one community broken down into many, many group chats,” Clodman said.
These online forums and volunteers in the community provide vaccine hunters with a range of tips, which Vaccine Hunters Canada then verifies and posts.
Natalie Young used the Twitter page to help her family secure appointments.
“I started to notice how often they were posting, how frequently and how accurate it was,” she said.
Ben Alavie said he’s grateful after being able to score appointments for himself and his family.
“It’s our go-to point in our entire family right now,” he said.
Vaccine Hunters is purely volunteer-based and not monetized. Clodman works as a kindergarten-to-grade six teacher with the Toronto District School Board, where he teaches art, drama, and physical education.
Clodman said he finds parallels between the two jobs.
“I think that’s what kind of makes Vaccine Hunters so much like good teaching. You meet people wherever they are, you listen to them, you validate their experience,” he said.
Clodman said that while he can’t walk into a hospital and help residents face-to-face, he can log onto Twitter where he continues to make a difference.
