Fashion blogger Abena Antwiwaa poses at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. Antwiwaa is one of dozens of influencers, ranging from busy moms and fashion bloggers to African refugee advocates and religious leaders, getting paid by the state to post vaccine information on a local level in hopes of stunting a troubling summer surge of COVID-19. Fashion blogger Abena Antwiwaa poses at her home in Aurora, Colo., on Friday, Aug. 6, 2021.
Colorado's #PowertheComeback target audience is especially tailored to Latino, Black, Native American, Asian and other communities of color that historically have been underserved when it comes to health care and are the focus of agencies trying to raise vaccination rates. “It started last year when I saw misinformation that directly affected our department, rumors like police were arresting people without a mask,” said Cornejo, a 10-year veteran with the Rifle Police Department. “Or that people get magnetized when they’re vaccinated. Sometimes people are just plain scared. I give them fact-based information, nothing political about it, so they can make an informed decision.
In Colorado, the state pays citizen influencers up to $1,000 a month for their work on Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and other platforms. The influencers post about their own vaccine experiences, dispel myths and misinformation, alert followers to pop-up vaccine clinics and direct them to information provided by state health authorities.
Xomad has developed a platform where influencers, content creators and health officials can rapidly fine-tune or change messaging to respond to events such as last spring's pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, new online misinformation or an expansion of age groups eligible for shots. The Oklahoma City County Health Department debuted the approach in late 2020, hiring Xomad to recruit local influencers to suggest ways their followers could celebrate stay-at-home holidays, agency spokeswoman Molly Fleming said. The campaign changed with the rollout of vaccines, and could change again with the advent of booster shots, as well as with non-COVID-19 issues such as a recent uptick in syphilis cases, she said.