Catholic campaign urges people to vaccinate

CHA social media campaign promotes COVID jab

Catholic not-for-profit hospitals in Sydney are embarking on a city-wide, month-long advertising campaign to promote the benefits of taking up the COVID vaccine.

The Get Back to the Life You Love campaign will remind Sydneysiders of the valuable human interactions they are missing out on because of the restrictions they face during lockdown. The Facebook campaign by peak advisory body Catholic Health Australia is aimed at anyone who is eligible for vaccination and urges them to act now and book a date for their shot.

CHA’s Director of Health Policy James Kemp said the campaign – which has been endorsed by St Vincent’s Health Sydney, St John of God Health Care and Calvary Healthcare – aims to give the community a nudge.

“We want to remind people what’s missing from their lives, those human interactions that do so much to offset the stresses of dealing with this pandemic,” Mr Kemp said.

“Vaccination is the pathway back to some sense of normality in our lives, and if our sector can play a role in getting those vaccination rates up then that is a good thing. Sadly, we are not going to persuade that small minority of people who will never take a vaccine, but what we can do is give those considering getting a vaccine a good nudge.”

Mr Kemp said that with the vaccine supply growing daily, and more places to get vaccinated coming on stream, now was the time to get people to book a date.

“We owe it to our family, friends and the wider community to get vaccinated without delay.”

The CHA ads, created by the advertising agency, Conversion, will point Facebook users to the NSW State Government’s COVID vaccination page, which then directs users to the nearest vaccination point or those with the earliest booking date. They are expected to reach an estimated 800,000 people over the coming month.