VacSeen strives to encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19

Two tech minds came together to encourage people to get vaccinated.

What you need to know

• VacSeen is a campaign to raise awareness and encourage adoption of COVID-19 vaccines.
• VacSeen encourages people to receive a vaccine and to wear a wristband to signal that a person has been vaccinated.
• The campaign was started by one current and one former Microsoft employee.

One current and one former Microsoft employee have come together to create a startup to promote vaccination from COVID-19. The campaign is called VacSeen, and it encourages people to receive a vaccine and to wear a wristband to signify that they have been vaccinated. After an initial 30-day startup campaign on Kickstarter to create bands and generate awareness, 50 percent of the proceeds from VacSeen will be donated to the United nation's COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO.

Greg Akselrod, a principal product manager at Convoy and former senior program manager lead at Microsoft, partnered with Ian Mikutel, a principal product manager at Microsoft, to create VacSeen.

"If you really want true herd immunity, where you get a blanket of protection over the country ... you want about 75 to 85 percent of the country to get vaccinated," said Anthony Fauci, a leading expert on infectious diseases. "I would say even closer to 85 percent." It's important to note that some people cannot receive vaccines due to medical reasons, so reaching a high vaccination percentage is important to combat COVID-19.

The VacSeen silicone wristband has the VacSeen logo on one side and "Band Together" on the other. They're available in different sizes and you can receive one following a pledge of $5 or more.

According to VacSeen, the wristbands are intended to be a signal that say, "I've been vaccinated." They aren't intended to be a form of verification. Instead, they work similarly to an "I voted" sticker that raises awareness of voting while also letting others know that a person has voted.

VacSeen emphasizes that people should still follow public health guidelines while wearing a VacSeen wristband. It's not clear at this time if vaccinated people can become infectious or transmit COVID-19 to other people, so even if a person is vaccinated, they should follow health guidelines.