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Photo: Phynart Studio / Getty Images
During the pandemic, rules of engagement on Instagram have become increasingly onerous. In early quarantine, messages that previously seemed harmless suddenly felt heavy and deaf; now, a year and a half later, vaccination is the last landmine. Despite an ostensible ban on vaccine misinformation, the platform is overrun with anti-vaxx sentiment – which Facebook, Instagram’s parent company, has done little to curb. And for influencers who choose to share their immunization status with their followers, the payoff can be swift.
Maia James, a New York-based wellness influencer, recently posted about seeing her follower count “drop by the hundreds in real time” after posting about her child’s vaccination against COVID. Sharing a screenshot of one of the many emails she received, which ended with “go to hell”, she wrote: “This is probably why so many bloggers in this space have remained silent on the subject – even those I know have taken the vaccine themselves.”
We spoke to James and a few other influencers in New York City about how they’ve gotten around sharing their vaccination status with their followers and the reaction.
Sharing that I was getting the vaccine has certainly caused me the most negative backlash I have ever had. I have received hundreds of nasty emails. People even mailed me with clippings and anti-vaxx propaganda.
Among the crowd I interact with, it’s not always easy to predict what people think about vaccines. Still, I was surprised at how surprised my supporters were that I received the vaccine. They were like, Oh my God, you, most of all. There was a sizable minority who were really pissed off. And I could see, with my follow up on social media, the numbers just, like, scroll past the post where I announced that I was getting the shot. People would say, “I will never shop at your store again.” I’m not following you on anything.
Naively, at first I came from one place thinking everyone was going to want the vaccine, especially living in a New York bubble where everyone I knew was eager to get it. I didn’t think it was going to be taboo until I posted about it. People were in my DMs, total randoms, coming out of the woods saying, “You don’t know what’s in the vaccine. Why has it grown so quickly? It was so weird for me.
A few people haven’t followed me anymore, but not many because my audience is mostly female, younger and liberal. I have had a few crazy DMs, however. I posted a quote from a Atlantic article saying that vaccinated people should no longer bear the burden of unvaccinated people. Someone replied, “I like you and I like your content, but how is it different from Jews wearing armbands? Did you just compare being intentionally unvaccinated to being Jewish during the Holocaust?
I took a screenshot of it and posted it to my story, adding, “Sometimes when I think it can’t be worse, it is.” And also, how are you still following me? How do you still watch all of my stories when this is something I keep talking about?
It’s so funny that people think I got paid to get the vaccine. The day I was eligible I was refreshing this website, calling, doing my best to get the vaccine. I know of people who have been compensated by CVS or Walgreens for promoting getting the vaccine there. They are not paid directly by Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson or Moderna, but by specific pharmacies.
After I shared that I was getting the vaccine, there was certainly a series of negative messages that I am not qualified to share what I do or that it is not fair that I “push people” to. do something. However, I tried to take the position that I’m not pushing, I just show what I’m doing and then hope everyone uses their own brains and follows that. I don’t think that should be the responsibility of these young people in their twenties, or even teenage influencers – I hope people don’t come and see me as their source of information or their source of what’s going on. ethically right and wrong.
I don’t think your Instagram or TikTok necessarily has to be about social issues and politics, but if you keep quiet on purpose so that you not losing subscribers is a huge loophole and it’s really obvious to people. In June 2020, when the protests for George Floyd were going on, I was very loud. I lost about 1,000 Instagram followers after posting to Black Lives Matter. On the one hand, I’m like, Well i don’t want you to follow me. But then losing so many people, I was like, Holy shit, this ain’t no joke.
In the end, I think I eliminated all of the people who disagreed with me. When I posted about my vaccine, everyone was like, “Oh my God, stop it. You have an appointment ? because it was really difficult to get a date in New York at first. I was excited to post about it. I wanted people to know that I am doing this not only for myself but for the people around me, the immunocompromised, the people who have lost loved ones, so that I could go to my grandma without feeling guilty.
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