Australian mosque offers vaccines, battles rumour keeping people away

Members of an Islamic community in Australia has claimed that the widespread circulation of misinformation on Arabic social media platforms is undermining the vaccine rollout.

The Omar Mosque in Wollongong, Australia recently transformed into a pop-up vaccination clinic that hoped to vaccinate up to 100 worshippers.

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But the clinic only delivered a fraction of its target as bookings were cancelled amid concerns about vaccine safety.

“The issue that we are having at the moment is the misinformation about the AstraZeneca vaccine,” said Omar Mosque secretary Muhammad Qasim.

“People really think that as soon as they get the vaccine, they are going to get a clot and die. That is not how it works.”

Muhammad Qasim believes misinformation is fuelling vaccine hesitancy in the Illawarra’s Islamic community.

Mr Qasim cancelled his Pfizer appointment scheduled for later in the month to get vaccinated at his mosque.

But community leaders are fighting back against vaccine misinformation they say current government programmes are failing to dispel.

Dr Ataur Rahman is a doctor at Wollongong Hospital’s emergency department who volunteered to supervise the pop-up clinic.

He is also a member of the Omar Mosque and believed combating false information in the Arabic community remains a significant challenge.

“The misinformation flows through social media applications in their own languages in their own groups which seems to be circulating unverified facts and information,” he said.

The mosque also employed an Arabic interpreter in an effort to combat some of the incorrect information about vaccines circulating online.

A dedicated space was also set up within the mosque for women who wished to be vaccinated by a female nurse in a culturally-appropriate setting.

Despite the hesitancy, Dr Rahman still believed community clinics like the one at Omar Mosque can play an important role in fighting vaccine hesitancy and boosting vaccination rates.