Vax gets gaming ‘booster shot’  

KOCHI: How about using a digital game to counter the many challenges surrounding Covid vaccination and mitigate vaccine hesitancy among the public? Efforts are on to run such a drive at educational institutions across Kerala using Corona Bee Game, which was developed by a team of health communication researchers and mass communication faculties of various institutions in India. 

A pilot campaign has been launched in Christ Nagar College, Thiruvananthapuram. Corona Bee Game, available in multiple regional languages, helps challenge common myths, misconceptions and misinformation and inform ‘players’ how and where to get vaccinated.

Manju Rose Mathews, a health communication researcher at Amrita University and head of Media Studies at Christ Nagar College, coordinated the game’s development in various Indian languages. She said Corona Bee Game is fun, informative, and effective.

“Covid cases are rising again after an interval and vaccine hesitancy is a growing concern in India. Reports say millions of people in the country have skipped the second dose. This game is interactive, has competitions and imparts more knowledge about the pandemic and the importance of vaccines,” said Manju. 

“Around 70% of students on our campus have been vaccinated and our target is to achieve a cent per cent inoculation. With the help of the National Service Scheme units, we are planning to popularise the game and launch similar campaigns across the state.” 

Manju added that a UK-based company had launched a similar game when there was a flu outbreak in Britain and it was found to be effective.  “The company came up with a similar project and launched this game in India. It is developed as a tool which not only entertains the users but also educates and encourages them to get the vaccine,” she said.

The game was developed by UK-based Focus Games, which has expertise in developing healthcare games, globally. “We are doing further research on the effectiveness of the game and also trying to get funding from the World Health Organisation,” said Manju.