BEVERLY HILLS, April 23, (THEWILL) – Facebook says it has launched a new social media drive to allow people add frames and graphics to indicate they had taken the COVID-19 vaccine or plan to do so.
Facebook, in a statement on Friday by its Head of Public Policy for Anglophone West Africa, Adaora Ikenze, said the multinational media platform was working in partnership with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency on the initiative.
She said Facebook would use its scale and speed to reach people quickly, help them get credible information, get vaccinated and come back together safely.
According to her, the new range of Facebook frames and Instagram stickers would allow people to share their support for getting vaccinated with their family and friends, as the access to COVID vaccines expands across Nigeria.
“The frames and stickers include banners that say ‘Let’s Get Vaccinated’ or ‘I Got My COVID-19 Vaccine’. The banner will appear overlaid on the edge of their profile picture next to a blue bubble that reads ‘We Can Do This’,” she said.
She added that Facebook was launching the profile frames because research showed how social norms could have a major impact on people’s attitude and behaviour when it came to their health.
“We are promoting these unique profile frames and GIFs to all Nigerian Facebook and Instagram users to raise vital vaccine confidence,” Ikenze said.
She said that the new frames and stickers would allow people to share their support for COVID-19 vaccines, and see that others they respected and cared about were doing the same.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, expressed excitement at the partnership with Facebook.
Shuaib said: “It is exhilarating to know that partnerships like the one we secured with Facebook demonstrate the resilience of the human spirit to endure, innovate and re-emerge.
“It also secures the promise of hope that COVID-19 vaccination offers to everyone.”
Facebook said it would show people a summary in their News Feed of all their friends, family members and people they followed who were using the new COVID-19 vaccine profile frames.
