Paul Murphy
Question:16. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Taoiseach if he will report on the work of staff in his Department on the #antiviral social media campaign. [42052/20]
View answerWednesday, 16 December 2020
Questions (16)
Written answers
Younger people have been among the groups most affected by Covid-19. They have missed out on many of the formative experiences, and rites of passage that so many of us have experienced - from the final year in school, to the Leaving Cert, to starting college, starting work and all that goes with that and much more.
Their social lives and their social networks, which are so important to these groups, have been restricted. There have been some incidents of non-compliance involving young people, house parties etc, which have received a lot of focus and attention, especially on social media, over the course of the last number of months.
Staff in GIS have been working (and continue to work with) other Government Departments, agencies and other groups such as Spun Out, and the USI, to understand how the pandemic has been affecting this cohort, their attitudes and the kind of communications that would resonate with this group.
The evidence suggested that the majority of young people are complying with restrictions and are keen to continue to do so. The evidence also suggested that an effective approach would be to highlight the good work most young people have been doing, to acknowledge the efforts they have made and to create a forum or movement for young people to share their stories and accounts of how they are living their best lives possible within the guidelines.
It was also felt that communications that were co-created and peer-led, using the platforms that this cohort preferred would resonate most.
GIS, working with a creative agency partnered with a number of 'content creators' to create content and a forum on social media called #antiviral - using the hashtag young people are invited to share their stories and accounts of living in compliance with the restrictions. The content creators also canvassed their followers for questions which they put to the Acting Chief Medical Officer Ronan Glynn, this question and answer session is available on the website antiviralireland.com. The campaign is due to run until December 23 and will resume in January.
The campaign is running on Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Youtube and has been performing very well with over 5.7 million impressions, over 160,000 engagements and 1.1 million TikTok hashtag views.
While we must make sure that we don’t become complacent, it is important to note that, as per NPHET update on 10th December, there has been a very significant decrease in incidence of the virus in the younger adult (19-24) age group in recent weeks.
Question No. 17 resubmitted.