As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, public officials in several areas are finding creative ways to promote coronavirus testing and vaccination sites. Most notably, the Biden administration invited pop star Olivia Rodrigo to the White House, where she spoke about the need for COVID-19 testing and vaccinations. On a more local level, public officials aren't able to bring in pop stars, but they are able to use a few other creative methods.
In the state of Arkansas, health officials are calling on local entrepreneurs to discuss the need to get vaccinated during the pandemic. One YouTube ad features Richard Johnson, a local entrepreneur. Johnson's personality and unintentional comedic nature instantly made the video go viral on YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.
"You have to understand. I'm a hustler. I'm a legit entrepreneur. I sell things. I come in contact with people all of the time. I have to stay safe," he said.
This week, the Baltimore City Health Department rivaled Arkansas' viral ad with a social media campaign of their own. In a series of posters, the city of Baltimore illustrated a number of comedic situations in which one Baltimore resident reminds the other that they need to be vaccinated before participating in a group activity.
"Mimosas with the girls? You still aren't vaxxed, Debra," one poster reads.
"Ginger ale can't cure COVID, Derek," another ad reads.
The Baltimore City Health Department and the Arkansas State Health Department are part of a larger push to get more Americans vaccinated. Currently, nearly 50% of Americans remain unvaccinated. In order to combat a recent spike in COVID-19 cases caused by the delta variant, top medical professionals are challenging Americans to raise the national vaccinated rate past 50%.
"When you get the overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated – and we don't know what that threshold is – the virus will disappear, and then we won't need to worry about it, at least in this country. If you don't do that, you will get a smoldering level of infection that will just go right into the fall, get confused with influenza in the winter, and then come back again in the spring," Chief White House Medical Examiner Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
"Now for the unvaccinated who say I don't really care, I'm young and healthy, if I get infected, it is true that, statistically, it is unlikely that you will have a serious outcome. If you were living in a vacuum, that would be fine, but you're not living in a vacuum. You are living in a society. And if you become the vehicle for the virus to go from you to someone else, you are helping to propagate the virus."
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