Facebook: We’re working with global health authorities for COVID-19 vaccine awareness in Nigeria

Facebook says it is working with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) alongside national and global health authorities to drive COVID-19 vaccine awareness in Nigeria.

The social networking service recently launched a drive allowing people to add frames and graphics to their profiles on Facebook and Instagram towards indicating that they either had the COVID vaccine or plan to.

In a recent interview, Adaora Ikenze, the company’s head of public policy for Anglophone West Africa, gave more insight into what Facebook is doing to increase its investments in COVID-19 vaccines.

“Prior to now, we had launched the COVID Information Center on all Facebook products,” she said.

“We are working closely with national and global health authorities such as the NPHCDA to help drive awareness about vaccines, including routine immunization, and also in removing barriers to access to vaccines.

“By using our scale and speed to reach people and increase acceptance of the vaccine, we are doing our part to help people get credible information, get vaccinated, and come back together safely.”

Ikenze also spoke on why there is an interest in advocating vaccine acceptance and how Facebook plans to spread the word.

“The launch of the COVID profile frames on Facebook is primarily to drive platform awareness and education about COVID vaccines in Nigeria and nudge more people to get vaccinated,” she said.

“As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups across Nigeria, we are teaming up with the NPHCDA to launch new Facebook profile frames and Instagram GIPHY stickers.

“This goes towards “…allowing users to share their support for getting vaccinated with their family and friends.”

On how the initiative is to work, Ikenze said: “As access to the vaccine expands, it is important to spread the word, provide credible information, and encourage others to get vaccinated to reduce the spread and effects of COVID-19.

“The new profile frames and GIPHY stickers let you share your support for COVID-19 vaccines, and see that others you respect and care about do the same. In the weeks ahead, people will see a summary in their news feed of all their friends, family members, and people they follow who are using the new COVID-19 vaccine profile frames.

“People who adopt the first-party frames will be part of the list of profiles that will be shown to others as we all work together towards overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic for good.”

“When you add a COVID-19 vaccine profile frame, we will include that action in a total count of everyone who has done so. Your profile picture may also appear to your friends in their news feed.

“And you may also see the faces of your friends who have used this feature. National and global health authorities will be able to access aggregate user adoption numbers, broken out by country, via the Frame Studio tool.”