The British government’s all-out media blitz to make sure there can’t be a single person in the country who doesn’t know Downing Sreet wants them to take a third coronavirus vaccine continues unabated, with every cell phone in the nation due to ring out after Christmas Day with a reminder.
An agreement with mobile phone network operators means the British government will be able to push a text message to every UK handset on the day after Christmas — Boxing Day — telling adult owners to get a third coronavirus shot.
Broadsheet newspaper The Daily Telegraph reports the government has used nationwide text-shots to encourage adherence to lockdown rules in the past. The National Health Service (NHS) has also used personally targeted messages to tell members of the public that they should get vaccine shots.
The paper reports the remarks of Hamish MacLeod, director of industry body Mobile UK, who said of the forthcoming communication: “The Government has asked the mobile operators to deliver a widespread text message alert and they have agreed to do this to help combat the national pandemic.”
The Guardian reports the draft text of the message will read: “Get boosted now. Every adult needs a Covid-19 booster vaccine to protect against Omicron. Get your Covid-19 vaccine or booster. See NHS website for details.”
The left-wing outlet noted that the mass-text is being treated as controversial within the telecommunications industry because of what it calls the “highly politicised nature of the vaccination programme”.
Appeals direct to citizens’ mobile phones is just one of many strategies the government has employed of late to, as the Prime Minister himself puts it, “get jabs in arms”. For the faithful, there have been claims that getting a vaccine is the correct behaviour for Christians, and for devotees of modernist faith alternatives, there are the constant exhortations to “follow the science“.
The government has also bought considerable advertising real-estate over the course of the pandemic, including radio advertisements and billboards. Most recently, British national newspapers were ‘wrapped’ in a British government booster advert this week, with both front and back pages covered in block-colour taxpayer-funded information.