• Are all the means available to encourage children to be vaccinated?

  • As the question of vaccination of under 12s against Covid-19 provokes heated debate, a video showing a child receiving a dose of vaccine as he is immersed in a fantasy world thanks to a virtual reality headset controversy on Twitter.

  • This initiative does exist: it saw the light of day in Brazil in 2017, well before the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It's disgusting and satanic!

".

For this Twitter user, as for many other Internet users relaying the same video sequence, an initiative combining virtual reality (VR) and vaccination is visibly revolting.

In this extract of about twenty seconds, divided into two parts, we observe at the same time the world - virtual - in 3D in which the child with a VR headset finds himself immersed and the injection - very real - vaccine that a nurse gives to his arm.

It's disgusting and satanic!

https://t.co/5RMwGSTBh7

- Spartacus ⑩ (@glennspartacus) October 24, 2021

The synchronization of the fictitious sequence with reality thus gives him the impression of having a “fire fruit” affixed to his arm covered with mesh… just as the nurse pushes the needle into this part of his body.

The following explanation scrolls: “The nurse injects the vaccine while the children are having fun.

They see themselves as heroes and are not afraid.

"

Enough to bring many Internet users to be indignant at what they consider to be indoctrination of the youngest in the midst of the Covid-19 vaccination period.

FAKE OFF

If this initiative does exist, it was created before the Covid-19 pandemic.

More precisely in 2017, as specified on the Lobo site, one of the studios behind this initiative.

“The Hermes Pardini, Ogilvy Brazil and Lobo laboratories have teamed up to tackle one of the most powerful forces in the world: the fear of vaccines in children.

Our strategy against this seemingly insurmountable challenge has been to create an immersive fantasy world in which the child becomes a hero, and the dose of vaccine a shield that helps him defend the kingdom against an enemy invasion, ”the studio explains. about this initiative, which is simply based on the use of a smartphone and a virtual reality headset.

A way to overcome fear of the needle

In 2018, the BBC looked at this Brazilian project in an article.

We learned that the nurse saw the unfolding of the virtual action on another screen, in order to be able to synchronize the injection with the action taking place in this fantasy world, or that this initiative was intended to facilitate the campaigns of vaccination of the Hermes Pardini pharmacy chain, which had installed such a device in 80 stores.

“This project taught us that children mostly fear the needle more than the pain itself.

Theoretically, removing the moment when the needle approaches would eliminate this fear.

And that's exactly what happened ”, welcomed Luiz Evandro on this occasion, as a member of one of the studios behind this creation.

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  • Virtual reality

  • Coronavirus

  • Fake off

  • Anti-covid vaccine

  • Vaccination

  • Society