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Current and former Microsoft employees come together to raise awareness of COVID-19 vaccination

Vacseen (Image credit: VacSeen)

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.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott


  • Wear a wrist band oh good grief, it is a wonder they don't want the ones that are not vaccinated to have a bell and wear a sign saying unclean.
  • That would help though.
  • No it would not, it would divide people and all hell will break out. The U.K is divided enough as it is due to Brexit and the U.S., is also divided, because of some nit called Trump.
  • This is an absolutely stupid idea. Sure, some of the virtue signalers will buy into this nonsense, but the vast majority of people simply want to get the vaccine and move on with life.
  • Complain all you want, but virtue signaling would actually help. Social pressure to get the vaccine is a good thing.
  • I think this is a good idea. Sure, if everyone were reasonable intelligent people and would get vaccinated as soon as it is available to them, we wouldn't need something like this. But, unfortunately, we have too many idiot "anti-vaxxers" in the nation that might sway the gullible who might be on the fence with their baseless, debunked bs into not getting vaccinated.
  • I am not an Anti-vaxer, but I am not sure if I would want this vaccine, they say it is safe and yes it may be for a few months, but we have no idea what it may do in the future, it may even make the Virus mutate again to something worse