Ellie Zeiler, 17, a TikTok creator with more than 10 million followers, received an email in June from Village Marketing, an influencer marketing company. She said the email was about a vaccination campaign being run by the White House.
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Would Ms. Zeiler, a high school student who usually posts short fashion and lifestyle videos, be willing to participate in a White House-backed campaign encouraging her audience to get vaccinated against the coronavirus?
“There is a huge need to raise awareness within the 12-18 age group,” Village Marketing said in Ms. Zeiler’s business email. “We are moving quickly and only have a few spots available, so please let us know as soon as possible.”
Ms. Zeiler quickly agreed, joining a broad campaign to address an increasingly urgent challenge in the fight against the pandemic: vaccinating young people, who have the lowest vaccination rates of any eligible age group in the United States.
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Less than half of all Americans ages 18 to 39 are fully vaccinated, compared with more than two-thirds of people over 50, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And about 58 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds have yet to receive a single dose of the vaccine.
To reach unvaccinated youth, the White House has enlisted an army of more than 50 Twitch streamers, YouTubers, TikTokers and 18-year-old pop star Olivia Rodrigo, all with huge online audiences. State and local governments have launched similar campaigns, in some cases paying “local micro-influencers” — those with 5,000 to 100,000 followers — up to $1,000 a month to promote Covid-19 vaccines to their fans.
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The White House's efforts are a counterattack against the rising tide of vaccine misinformation that has flooded the internet, where anti-vaccine activists can be so vocal that some young creators say they have chosen not to talk about vaccines to avoid a politicized backlash.
Source of information: nytimes.com
