ALOR SETAR (Bernama): Children have to provide a positive environment and as much information as possible on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines to help convince their parents to register for it.

       Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) School of Applied Psychology, Policy and Social Work Dean Assoc Prof Dr Abdul Razak Abd Manaf said parents should be informed of the benefits of the vaccine to convince them to go for the inoculation.

       He said children could have a talk with their parents on the importance of the vaccination without making the latter feel they are being forced into getting the jabs.

       "Tell them about other parents who had received the vaccination, how healthy they are, as testimonials for them to also get it (vaccine).

       "Tell them about their friends who are not as healthy or fit as them who have received the vaccination and were glad they did, ” he told Bernama.

       Abdul Razak said stories on moments experienced by other parents before, during and after the Covid-19 vaccination could help to change their parents’ mind.

       Children can also use a psychological approach by informing their parents of the consequences if they are not vaccinated, like not being able to travel inter-district or inter-state, hence not being able to to meet relatives and see their grandchildren.

       He said people from outside the family, such as family doctors, could also help to talk parents into accepting the vaccination.

       Noor Asmin Mohd Khassim, 43, from Jitra, who managed to coax her mother, Rahmah Ahmad, 79, to register for the vaccination, said she shared information on the benefits of the vaccine, which she gathered from reliable sources, with her mother.

       "Initially, my mother was adamant about not getting the jab because of the negative information about the vaccine she had been reading on her phone.

       "When she relented, I registered her name and now she has completed both doses and is healthy.

       "It was only after my mother had completed both doses that I registered my father for the Covid-19 jab, and he, too, completed his vaccination, with the second dose on June 22.

       "Unlike my mother, my father was all for the vaccine, ” she added.

       Noor Asmin said children played an important role in influencing their parents’ decisions and to make her mother changed her mind, she had done her own reading to gather facts on the benefits of the Covid-19 inoculation to counter the false information that her mother had been getting.

       Mohd Zulhelmi Mohd Sayutti, 33, from Guar Chempedak, near Yan, said his mother, Salmiah Shaari, 56, initially refused to get the vaccine because of the negative stories.

       "However, she changed her mind and asked me to register her name for the vaccination on June 25 and she got her first dose two days ago, ” he said on Friday (July 2).

       Zulhelmi said he believed that what finally changed his mother’s mind about getting the vaccine was listening to the positive stories about it, especially from her siblings, nieces and nephews, who had received the vaccine jab earlier. - Bernama