WHO HAS MORE INFLUENCE?
PARTON, ANISTON AND OTHER CELEBS ENDORSE VACCINES, BUT EXPERTS WARN THEIR PLEAS CAN SOMETIMES BACKFIRE
Jennifer Aniston is best known for her role in Friends, but these days she’s avoiding some members of her inner circle who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Last week, her Instyle interview made headlines after she said people have a “moral and professional obligation to inform” others about their vaccination status.
“I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose, and it was unfortunate,” Aniston said.
She then supported her remarks on Instagram. Responding to a question about why she’s concerned about unvaccinated people around her if she’s received a shot herself, Aniston wrote, “Because if you have the variant, you are still able to give it to me.”
“I may get slightly sick but I will not be admitted to a hospital and/or die,” Aniston wrote to more than 37 million followers. “BUT I CAN give it to someone else who does not have the vaccine and whose health is compromised (or has a previous existing condition) — and therefore I would put their lives at risk.”
“THAT is why I worry,” she said. “We have to care about more than just ourselves here.”
Star-studded photo ops and high-profile vaccine endorsements have become a major part of public health messaging in the pandemic era.
Politicians, celebrities, athletes and religious leaders have encouraged others to get vaccinated and follow scientific guidance with varying results.
Nonetheless, celebrities are posting. “I just want to say to all of you cowards out there: Don’t be such a chicken squat,” country singer Dolly Parton said in a March video posted to Twitter after she was inoculated. “Get out there and get your shot.”
On Aug. 1, Ariana Grande shared with her 257 million Instagram followers a “gentle reminder to please get your vaccines.” Last month, teen singer Olivia Rodrigo stood pink-clad in the White House briefing room, encouraging young people to get their shots.
Such campaigns are not new: For centuries, celebrities have encouraged medical behaviours, many times becoming the faces of vaccination drives.
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia says Benjamin Franklin was one of the most notable promoters of variolation — an early method of immunization that included infecting people with a mild form of a disease — to prevent smallpox, which had killed his young son.
More than 200 years later, Elvis Presley received the polio vaccine backstage at The Ed Sullivan Show in an effort to sway teenagers. A national health charity then offered to send a signed photo of the event to any of the singer’s fan clubs that could prove that all its members were vaccinated, according to Stephen Mawdsley, a historian at the University of Bristol who studies 20th-century U.S. medicine and public health.
Mawdsley’s research found that although celebrity endorsements can help health officials reach a wider audience, they may not be the driving force behind changing people’s behaviour.
In Presley’s 1950s vaccination campaign — which helped polio cases drop by 90 per cent when the decade ended — the historian says it was less about the thrill of rock ’n’ roll than it was about creating peer networks with teenagers who promoted the vaccination. The March of Dimes invited teens to share insight into their reluctance. The result was Teens Against Polio, a group that helped increase vaccination rates among young people.
Five decades later, though, one notable name helped promote a life-saving screening.
In 2000, journalist Katie Couric dedicated a Today show segment to colonoscopies — while undergoing the procedure on the air. The number of colon cancer screenings soared for about nine months after the segment aired, research from the University of Michigan Medical School shows.
“These findings suggest that a celebrity spokesperson can have a substantial impact on public participation in preventive care programs,” the scientists said.
But not all celebrity health campaigns serve the public well, says University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Damon Centola.
While people look to influencers to learn about the latest makeup trend or skin-care brand, they often do not appreciate their vaccine advice, Centola said. In those cases, the opinions of their neighbours, friends and family members matter most.
“When people resist an idea, when they’re uncomfortable with it or, most importantly, everyone around them is, then you get into this space of people looking to the people around them to see what’s acceptable,” he said.
In fact, having the likes of Aniston, Grande and Lin-manuel Miranda share their masked-up, shot-inthe-arm posts can have the opposite effect.
“That really doesn’t work when people are embedded in networks and have peers and friends and people at school and people at home who think that that’s a really bad idea,” Centola said. “Everyone already knows about this thing, and there’s a lot of resistance to it. Telling people about (vaccination) more makes them feel a bit resentful; they believe it less, and they get overwhelmed.”
With health and government officials looking for the most effective ways to address distrust, Centola said evidence points to information shared among neighbours and friends.
“The way we’re using social influence is a little outdated,” he said. “Giving some groups a vehicle for talking about it and supporting each other in the communities is key. That’s how there’s information contagion, which can grow and spread around the nation.”
The “average person can sometimes be the best influencer,” Centola said.
I just want to say to all of you cowards out there: Don’t be such a chicken squat. Get out there and get your shot.
— Dolly Parton, when she got her COVID Vaccination March In