UK Covid-19: As young people itch to leave lockdown, UK health experts face a new challenge

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

His video montage – which showed him trading gray skies for sunshine in the UAE – is said to arouse the jealousy of many Britons, who have been unable to access anything but essential international travel for months.

“I noticed a lot of influencers leaving, like many influencers,” Hussain told CNN, admitting to seeing some anger in the comments on his travel videos.

The travels of British influencers have not escaped the attention of the UK’s insatiable tabloids – screenshots of their foreign parties have been plastered under unflattering headlines for weeks.

And influencers don’t have to leave the house to get a response. Last month, a senior official with the National Health Service (NHS) was forced to urge people not to follow the advice of Gwyneth Paltrow, who wrote on her blog that she alleviated the effects of Long Covid with a variety of superfoods such as kombucha and Kimchi. .

But as young people become restless in lockdown, and as vaccine introduction moves towards millennials, concern is growing from both within and outside the influencing industry that their laissez-faire approach is rubbing on followers.

“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 mimic their behavior,” Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, told CNN via e -mail. . “Social media influencers are today’s celebrities. They must recognize the responsibility that comes with it and work to promote, not undermine, public health.

“Influencers have this tremendous appeal – it’s in their name, they influence,” added Keith Herman, whose company Trending Travel uses a network of influencers to promote locations around the world. “You have to be careful how you use them.”

‘People see you as a role model’

“We have 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 around it.”

British Home Secretary Priti Patel had similarly spoken out against stars taking flights to sunnier locations. “We see a lot of influencers on social media showing where they are in the world – mostly sunny places,” she said in Parliament, stressing that people simply shouldn’t be allowed to travel. “

But if UK media outlets are any indication, the admonition hasn’t been filtered through the influencer community.

A look at the comments of an influencer currently relaxing abroad shows that not everyone feels the same. “Hard at work! Hope you enjoy the pandemic,” wrote a user under a recent image of former reality TV star James Lock showing him jet skiing in Dubai. Similar posts from influencers often see a flood of messages saying fans will stop following the star.

Hussain, who became one of Britain’s TikTok stars under his leadership “its_danzy” last year, insisted the outrage is misguided. “Some people don’t 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 stuck and it was for my birthday”. He added, “And I knew it would be good for the content too. People like different countries and stuff.”

The university student has no illusions that his sudden platform carries weight, even when his content contradicts official advice. “People see you as a role model … if people appreciate your point and appreciate everything you say, in a way I think that does have an impact.”

And he admitted that he regretted “to some extent” that he posted about his travels. ‘You tell people to do what the law says they shouldn’t do.

“But if I was there for business or influencing reasons … I wouldn’t say you should go too,” he added. “If an influencer doesn’t do what he has to do, he won’t make money.”

Others were less relaxed.

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

“We realized pretty early on that every time someone posted something, they were absolutely butchered over 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 vacation destinations) please don’t post.”

‘Followers are everything’

Elma Beganovich, an influencer with 700,000 Instagram followers who has used her social know-how to set up a marketing company, told CNN that online stars must adhere to a crucial rule: “Don’t be tone-deaf.

“Letting champagne pop by the pool at some exotic resort … that just isn’t going to be socially acceptable,” Beganovich told CNN. “It has become distasteful to say look how flashy I am when you know that so many people have lost their jobs or their loved ones are being hospitalized.”

“To influencers, followers are everything,” she said. “They can lose their contracts, or have them downsized or paused,” if brands disregard their behavior.

Even more urgently, health experts are concerned about the impact of carefree content at a time when most of the world is still painfully trapped under a Covid-19 cloud.

“Celebrities and public figures influence the public’s perceptions, attitudes and behavior, which carries great responsibility,” said Ilan Kelman, professor of disaster and health at University College London. “We hope that all influencers and people in the public eye will make their comments scientifically substantiated and that their actions are clearly within the rules,” he said.

“We know from other public health topics that images or reports of celebrities engaging in harmful behavior play a role in others who believe the behavior is acceptable or normal,” added Linda Bauld, Bruce and John Usher, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. , please. “There are a number of studies showing that celebrity smoking in movies affects youth smoking, and that endorsement of alcohol by influencers increases the risk of alcohol abuse in teens.

“It is therefore plausible that when we see influencers ignoring press lock-down rules, it normalizes that kind of behavior, making it more acceptable,” she said.

“There are a lot of things that you could say are a little lighthearted and irresponsible,” added Heidi J Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project, a research group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine founded to hesitation with vaccines.

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

“We should not kid ourselves about the wave of hesitation that we will see in different environments, and especially in younger people,” she said.

But if they do present a challenge, influencers can also offer an opportunity.

The British government has tried to get them out of the way. Last month, it named Alex George, a contestant on the reality TV show “Love Island,” who returned as a primary care physician 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 Test and Trace program.

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

Even tour companies like Herman’s are trying to use influencers in a new way, encouraging them to start posting about how Covid safe hotels are as soon as they start promotions again.

And Beganovich predicts lasting changes in the influencing industry, with a new interest in content from health experts. “I’ve seen A&E doctors gaining a lot of popularity through Instagram,” she said. “Even influencers are affected.”