The Age - Misinformation was rife in Whatsapp groups in Nayana’s community so she made her own

University of Sydney research last month found the majority of public vaccination information from the federal, Victorian, NSW and Queensland governments was written at postgraduate level.

That makes it too difficult for those with an average reading ability — year 8 level — to understand. Even more so for the 9 million people in Australia who have lower health literacy.

Kirsten McCaffery, director of research at Sydney University’s School of Public Health, who co-authored the research, said the most blatant example of miscommunication was beamed onto TVs nationwide in July.

“The federal government’s ‘Arm Yourself’ campaign isn’t translatable. The ‘arm yourself’ metaphor simply doesn’t translate to different languages. For so many people, the ad means nothing more than seeing an arm with a Band-Aid on it,” Professor McCaffery says of the $41 million campaign.

“You need a broad communications campaign that speaks to the whole community, on top of that best practice of empowering community leaders who instigate a two-way conversation on the ground in their local communities.”