Lorne nurse says combating misinformation on social media hampering Covid fight

A Lorne medico says he can “understand vaccine hesitancy” as people battle the social media bombardment of anti-vaxxers spreading misinformation, hurting the local and overseas Covid fight.

A Surf Coast healthcare worker who has been on the Covid frontline locally and abroad says combating misinformation on social media is one of the biggest challenges facing medical teams.

Great Ocean Road Health Nurse Unit Manager Jason Phieler has helped fight the virus both here and overseas, working with the Australian Medical Assistance Team during the global pandemic in Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

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As a member of the federal and state-based rapid-response teams for disasters, Mr Phieler has seen more than his fair share of suffering.

“Not being able to get your breath and dying is potentially the worst way to die,” he said.

He said particularly with Delta strain, in both Papua New Guinea and Fiji, it was not necessarily the old and diseased who were dying.

“It was kids, teenagers and young adults as well,” he said.

“The anxiety behind it is terrible – it is truly heartbreaking.”

Mr Phieler has worked at Great Ocean Road Health Lorne campus since 2002 and took personal leave to assist at the Port Moresby General Hospital for four weeks during the second wave of the pandemic earlier this year.

His role was to integrate into the local emergency department to provide training, set up screening and swabbing stations and help with Covid outbreak procedures and policies.

Great Ocean Road Health Nurse Unit Manager Jason Phieler. Picture: Supplied

The experience gained while helping those in crisis was invaluable and he has been able to transfer this knowledge back to Great Ocean Road Health to assist with the Covid response plans.

“The only way to flatten the curve anywhere in the world is to make sure people are vaccinated,” Mr Phieler said.

“While we were in Fiji, the country flattened the curve with vaccination and we are seeing it work in both Victoria and NSW – vaccination saves lives and takes pressure off the health system.”

He believes one of the biggest challenges for medical teams today is combating misinformation on social media and encouraged those who were not yet vaccinated to seek correct information and roll up their sleeve.

“I can understand vaccine hesitancy to a degree,” he said.

“One of the concerns people come to me about is the fact these vaccines are developed so quickly,” he says.

“But the reason vaccine development usually takes time is because there is not enough money pumped into it.

“People need to know that they did not cut corners with this vaccine, it was just that the resources were there for them.”

He says his time in Papua New Guinea highlighted the need for Australia to continue to help its neighbours.

“Papua New Guinea is very raw, there is a lot of suffering that should not be there, but the people are accepting of the situation they are in,” he says.

Mr Phieler is proud of his team in Lorne and local residents for achieving high vaccination rates.

“There is definitely light at the end of the tunnel,” he says.

“It is just going to take some time and with the booster shots now rolling out in the community we can start to get back to normal.”

Originally published as Lorne nurse says combating misinformation on social media hampering Covid fight