The question was useful, however, because it provoked participants to define the type of information they wanted in order to make sense of reports such as those they had just heard. For instance, they said their response to the number of deaths would depend on how similar to their own circumstances were those who had died. Did they live in Australia, Victoria or developed countries? Were those who were dying, previously Table 3 Factors influencing the decision to immunise drawing on the Health Belief Model, subjective perception risk and risky decision-making theories healthy people or those who were sick and thus, more susceptible? Was it a familiar disease (flu) or rare (Ebola virus)? If it was unfamiliar it was frightening. If it was familiar (flu) they wanted to know the details of who it was who had died or suffered complications. Thus, it was not the statistics that were important for deciding on risk, but the characteristics of those who had the disease and the familiarity or unfamiliarity of the disease.