Group message chats have been a particularly helpful way of engaging with friends about getting the vaccine,she said.
“I’ve spoken to people in a lot of group chats and recommended to other people to speak to their doctors,” the Fitzroy tech researcher said.
“I’ve had at least half a dozen friends who have gone and got it after chatting with me. I’m just like ‘come and join the AZ club’.”
“I think when people know someone who got the vaccine,they feel more confident to get it as well,” she said. “It definitely has a lot of power.”
Student James Browning,19,from the Sutherland Shire in Sydney said he decided to get the AstraZeneca vaccine after calculating the odds of how often people get blood clots.
The estimated risk of people under 50 developing thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome is 3.1 per 100,000 doses.
Initially,Mr Browning’s GP advised him not to get AstraZeneca,however that changed when the latest COVID-19 outbreak worsened in Sydney. He got vaccinated last week.
After getting the jab,Mr Browning shared his experience with friends his age over phone calls and at online poker nights.
“They knew that I’d gotten it and they had a few questions,” he said.
“A lot of them were like me,they were hesitant because they’ve seen all the stuff in the media. And through their conversation with me,I think having a mate who did it,it broke the ice a little bit. They saw that I was fine and didn’t die.”
Those conversations have led to four of Mr Browning’s young friends getting the AstraZeneca vaccine.
“Initially,I was a bit passive,I didn’t really tell anyone about it,” he said. “But then I started making an effort,saying ‘I think you guys should’.”
Part of the reason for his friendship group getting vaccinated was wanting life to return to what it was before the pandemic.
“For my mates,at least,we all just want to get back to uni. And we just want to move on with our lives,” he said.
Vaccine expert Professor Julie Leask from the University of Sydney school of nursing and midwifery said those influencing others to get vaccinated needed to use persuasion,not coercion.
It was important not to make people who were worried about the risk of AstraZeneca feel shunned,she said.
“You don’t have to whack people over the head with a sledgehammer about getting vaccinated,” she said. “There’s an art to gentle and respectful persuasion.”
Professor Leask said social media could be a powerful tool,particularly visual platforms like Instagram,because the messages come from people we trust.
“Seeing people in your network having the vaccine tells you that this is something that those you trust and respect are doing,” she said.
“It’s almost like a subconscious effect,you don’t even realise it’s affecting us.”
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