UK Covid-19: As young people want to break the deadlock, British health experts face new challenge

London (CNN) – When 21-year-old Daanish Hussain escaped from London for New Year’s Eve in Dubai, he did what he does almost every day – he picked up his phone and documented his journey for 550,000 TikTok followers.

His video montage – which showed him changing the gray sky for the sun in the United Arab Emirates – would attract the envy of many Britons, who have been banned from all but international travel for months.

“I noticed that a lot of influencers disappeared – like, a lot of influencers,” Hussain told CNN, acknowledging that he saw some anger in the comments on his travel videos.

The travels of British influencers have not escaped the attention of insatiable tabloids in the UK – screenshots of their foreign parties have been plastered under unpleasant headlines for weeks.

And influencers do not have to leave home to provoke a negative reaction. Last month, a senior National Health Service (NHS) official was forced to urge people not to follow the advice of Gwyneth Paltrow, who wrote on her blog that she eased the effects of long Covid with a variety of super- foods such as kombucha and kimchi.

But as young people become uneasy about the blockade and as vaccine launches go on for millennia, concern is growing both inside and outside the industry that influences their laissez-faire approach to followers.

“One of the reasons marketers use celebrities in their campaigns is because they know it has an impact, because consumers, especially young people, want to mimic their behaviors,” said Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. , for e-mail. . “People who influence social networks are celebrities today. It should recognize the responsibility that comes with it and work to promote public health, not undermine it.

“Influencers have had this huge attraction – it’s in their name, it influences,” added Keith Herman, whose company Trending Travel uses a network of influencers to promote locations around the world. “You have to be careful how you use them.”

“People look at you as a role model”

“We need to take Covid seriously and apply serious science. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care in this regard.”

The Minister of the Interior of Great Britain, Priti Patel, looked similarly against the stars that took flights to sunnier locations. “We see a lot of social media influencers showing where they are in the world – especially sunny places,” she said in parliament, stressing that people should not simply travel. “

But if the British media is any indication, the warning was not leaked through the influencer community.

A look at the comments on any influencer currently relaxing abroad shows that not everyone feels the same. “Hard at work! I hope you enjoy the pandemic,” a user wrote under a recent image of former TV star James Lock, showing him jet skis in Dubai. Similar posts by influencers often see a lot of messages in which fans say they will cancel the star’s pursuit.

Hussain, who became one of Britain’s TikTok stars last year under his “its_danzy” hand, insisted the outrage is lost. “Some people don’t realize that social media is a job,” he told CNN.

As for his own reasons for traveling, Hussain said that “he had to go for business reasons”, but also “I was in a deadlock and it was my birthday”. He added: “And I knew it would be good for the content as well. People love different countries and that.”

The university student has no illusions that his sudden platform carries weight, even when its content contradicts official advice. “People look at you as a role model … when you have people who value your point and value everything you say, in a sense, I think that has an influence.”

And he admitted that he regrets “to some extent” the post about his travels. “You tell people to do what the law tells you not to do.

“But if I were there for business or influence … I wouldn’t say it should go as well,” he added. “If an influencer doesn’t do what they have to do, they won’t make money.”

Others were less relaxed.

Herman, whose Trending Travel uses a network of influencers to promote locations around the world, said he made the costly decision to tell celebrities not to post content from abroad.

“We realized pretty early on that every time someone posted, it was absolutely sacrificed on a sensitive topic,” he said. “I think some of them are more naive than anything else … I just told all the influencers that I went out (in holiday destinations): please don’t post.”

“Followers are everything”

Elma Beganovich, an influencer with 700,000 Instagram followers who used her social skills to set up a marketing company, told CNN that online celebrities must follow a crucial rule: “You can’t be deaf.

“Spring champagne by the pool in an exotic resort … that won’t be socially acceptable,” Beganovich told CNN. “It has become disgusting to say, look how ostentatious I am, when you know that so many people have lost their jobs or have their loved ones hospitalized.”

“For influencers, followers are everything,” she said. “They may lose their contracts or reduce them or be suspended” if the brands consider that their behavior is unaffected.

More pressingly, health experts are worried about the impact of carefree content at a time when most of the world is still agonizingly trapped under a Covid-19 cloud.

“Celebrities and public figures influence the perceptions, attitudes and behavior of the public, which comes with great responsibility,” said Ilan Kelman, a professor of disaster and health at University College London. “We hope that all influencers and people in the public eye will make their comments based on science and their actions clearly within the rules,” he said.

“We know from other public health topics that the images or stories of celebrities engaging in harmful behaviors play a role in others, believing that the behavior is acceptable or normal,” added Linda Bauld, Bruce and John Usher, a public health professor at University of Edinburgh,. “There are a number of studies that illustrate that celebrities who smoke in movies influence young people’s smoking and that influencers’ support for alcohol increases the risk of alcohol abuse in adolescents.

“Therefore, it is plausible that if we see influencers rejecting blocking rules in the press, it normalizes this type of behavior, making it more acceptable,” she said.

“There are a lot of things that could be said to be a bit creepy and irresponsible,” added Heidi J Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, a research group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine created to combat hesitation of the vaccine.

“The reality is that (young people) have been less affected by this pandemic,” she added. “(And) They exposed a lot to this misinformation.

“We should not fall in love with the wave of hesitation we will see in various settings and especially with younger people,” she said.

But if it offers a challenge, influencers can also present an opportunity.

The British government tried to put them aside. Last month, he named Alex George, a contestant on the TV show “Love Island,” who returned to work as a front-line doctor during the Covid-19 crisis, to be a mental health ambassador. And last year, £ 63,000 ($ 88,000) was awarded to 42 influencers in exchange for promoting his coronavirus testing and follow-up program.

“I think that’s a good thing – we’re going to need a variety of different types of voices,” Larson said. “It’s important to have credible and authoritative voices on social media.”

Even travel companies like Herman’s are looking to use influencers in a new way, encouraging them to start posting about how secure Covid hotels are once promotions resume.

And Beganovich predicts lasting changes in the influencing industry, with a new interest in content from health experts. “I’ve seen emergency physicians gain a lot of popularity through Instagram,” she said. “Even influencers are influenced.”