UK Covid-19: As young people want to be excluded, UK health experts face new challenge

London (CNN) – When 21-year-old Daanish Hussain escaped from London to Dubai in the New Year, he did what he does almost every day – answering his phone and documenting his journey for his 550,000 followers on TikTok.

His video montage – which shows him exchanging a gray sky in the United Arab Emirates for sunshine – would attract the envy of the British, who have been banned for months without any necessary international travel.

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

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

And influencers do not have to leave home to make a setback. Last month, a leading official at the National Health Service (NHS) had to urge people not to follow the advice of Gwyneth Paltrow, who wrote on her blog that she alleviates the effects of long Covid with a variety of superfoods such as kombucha and kimchi. .

But as young people become restless in the exclusion, and as the vaccine moves to millennials, concerns grow inside and outside the influential industry about their laissez-faire approach.

“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 follow their behavior,” said Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. told CNN in an email. . ‘The influencers on social media are the celebrities of today. They must recognize and work on the responsibility that comes with it, and not undermine public health.

“Influences have this big draw – it’s in their name, they influence,” adds Keith Herman, whose company Trending Travel uses a network of influencers to promote places around the world. “You have to be careful how you use it.”

‘People consider you a role model’

“We need to take Covid seriously and apply serious science for a long time. All influencers who use social media have a duty of responsibility and a duty of care to it.”

The British Home Secretary, Priti Patel, also boasted about the stars fleeing to sunnier places. “We see a lot of influencers on social media showing where they are in the world – mostly sunny places,” she said in parliament, emphasizing that people simply should not travel. “

But if there is any indication from British media, the admonition did not filter through the more influential community.

A look at the comments on any influencer currently relaxing abroad shows that not everyone feels the same. “Difficult at work! Hope you enjoy the pandemic,” one user wrote under a recent image of former TV star James Lock, showing him jet skiing in Dubai. Similar reports of influencers often see a flurry of messages in which fans say they will follow the star.

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

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

The university student does not illustrate that his sudden platform carries weight, even when its content is inconsistent with official advice. “People look at you as a role model … when people value your point and appreciate whatever you say, I have an influence in a sense.”

And he admitted that he was “to some extent” sorry about his travels. ‘You say kind of people to do what the law should not do to you.

“But if I was there for business, or for reasons of influence, I would not say you should go either,” he added. “If an influencer does not do what he is supposed to do, they are not going to make money.”

Others were less relaxed.

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

“We realized early on that every time someone posts, they are absolutely slaughtered on a sensitive topic,” he said. “I think some of them are more naive than anything else … We just said to all the influencers we had (in holiday destinations): please do not post.”

“Followers are everything”

Elma Beganovich, an influencer with 700,000 Instagram followers who used her social knowledge to set up a marketing business, told CNN that online stars must adhere to a crucial rule: ‘You can not be deaf not.

“Nice champagne by the pool at some exotic resort … it’s just not going to be socially acceptable,” Beganovich told CNN. “It becomes distasteful to say, look how showy I am, when you know that so many people have lost their jobs or that their loved ones have been hospitalized.”

“For influencers, followers are everything,” she said. “They may lose their contracts, or have them reduced or interrupted,” as brands view their behavior out of touch.

More urgently, health professionals are concerned about the impact of carefree content at a time when most of the world is still sitting anxiously under a Covid-19 cloud.

“Celebrities and public figures influence the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of the public, who have great responsibility,” said Ilan Kelman, professor of disasters and health at University College London. “We would hope that all influencers and people in the public eye would make their comments scientifically and their actions clear within the rules,” he said.

“We know from other public health topics that images or reports of celebrities acting harmfully play a role in others who believe the behavior is acceptable or normal,” said Linda Bauld, Bruce and John Usher, professor of public health at the University. of Edinburgh, added. . “There are a number of studies that illustrate that celebrities who smoke in movies have an influence on the smoking of young people, and that alcohol reconciliations by influencers increase the risk of alcohol abuse in teenagers.

“It is therefore plausible that when we see influencers excluding the rules in the press, it normalizes the kind of behavior that makes it more acceptable,” she said.

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

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

“We should not worry about the wave of hesitation we are going to see in different institutions, especially with younger people,” she said.

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

The British government tried to bring them to the side. Last month, it appointed Alex George, a participant in the reality TV show ‘Love Island’, who was working as a front doctor again during the Covid-19 crisis, as an ambassador for mental health. And last year, £ 63,000 ($ 88,000) was given to 42 influencers in exchange for promoting the coronavirus testing and detection program.

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

Even travel companies like Herman’s want to use influencers in a new way, and encourage them to start promoting Covid-safe hotels as soon as they start promoting again.

And Beganovich predicts lasting changes in the influential industry, with a new interest in content from health experts. “I’ve seen ER doctors become very popular through Instagram,” she said. “Even influencers are influenced.”