It might be a good idea to assign a photographer or someone to help people take their photos inside vaccination centers.
Photos of people getting vaccinated have been populating social media feeds to memorialize the moment, and also to convince others to get inoculated against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
When my turn to get the vaccine came last week, I had to ask someone to hold my phone and take a photo. A selfie wouldn’t work as well. I didn’t ask just so I could join others in taking photos or selfies of their vaccination. I asked because I have family members and friends to convince to have their own jabs, and so I wanted to prove to them I had mine and everything went well.
I was able to convince at least five others to sign up for the vaccination program and take their turn for the injection. Multiply that by the number of persons who take their shots daily and who post their pictures on social media and you will have a solution to the problem of vaccine hesitancy.
Sectors pushing for vaccination against the Sars-CoV-2 that causes Covid-19 have been struggling to convince the public to get jabbed because at least 700,000 or 70 percent of the Philippine population will have to be inoculated to stop the spread of the virus. The vaccine pose or the photo of you taking your shot is one way to address vaccine hesitancy at no extra cost to government.
All government has to do is to encourage those in vaccination centers to take their photos and share so others may know that they did the responsible thing and they were fine.
After I posted my own vaccine pose, friends and relatives asked how it went, what vaccine I had, and if there were side effects. I told them the process took less than two hours, including the 30 minutes of monitoring after the injection. The shot itself was painless. I felt pain a few minutes later at the injection site and felt dizzy, but these lasted less than five minutes and went away while I was being monitored.
I had the best vaccine, Sinovac, because, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the best vaccine was the one available. To those who asked, I encouraged them to register and get themselves vaccinated when their turn came. I counted at least five senior citizens who I think I was able to convince.
The best vaccine pose is the one that sends a positive message, that shows you smiling, happy to begin the journey of getting protection against the Covid-19. Avoid taking a photo of the needle inside the arm as this might turn away people scared of needles.
Communicate a message. A photo of you smiling with a plaster on the arm or holding up your vaccination card shows the reality of vaccination. My vaccine pose was of me doing a double thumbs up and saying I look forward to catching up with those I haven’t seen for over a year.