COVID on social media

COVID-19 Activism Overview
When Covid became a pandemic, many people took to Social Media to communicate and advocate for the health and safety of each other during quarantine. People used these platforms to advocate both for and against Covid and also spread information during the pandemic.

The Basics
Covid 19 was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Most schools, jobs, and businesses shut down end of March, and quarantine around the US started soon after that. Social Media saw an increase in users during this time. Science and health content began being seen as share-worthy by people on these platforms. This was proven by the World Health Organization, which was surveyed to find that around 44% of people said they were likely to share scientific content on their social media.

Activism Starting
Social media became the main place for communication and a place to spread awareness, tips, misinformation, and more. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic when people were unsure to believe if Covid was real or not, people used social media sites to encourage others to wear a mask, quarantine, and believe what the CDC was saying. People did this by sharing stories with infographics from health organizations, starting hashtags (#WearAMask, #MaskUp), and encouraging people to stay home through TV shows and celebrities.

Information spread very quickly online because of the speed of social media. There were and are many people on both sides of the pandemic who worked toward getting more information, vaccinations, and safety about covid as well as people on the other side fighting to not shut down schools and continue on without quarantining. The information that got passed through the media was not always correct but activists on both sides used real information and, sometimes misinformation, to argue their cases.

Covid-19 Hashtags
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, mask mandates were issued in the US. However, these mandates created polarized views: to uphold the mask madate or to be against it. As a result, social media became a means for the two sides to voice themselves through the use of hashtags.

In response to the increased number of hashtags, a study was conducted and gathered the number of tweets carrying pro-mask or anti-mask hashtags between March 1st and August 1, 2020.

COVID-19 Misinformation
Social media gave a platform to conspiracy theories and other types of misinformation during the height of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Magnet Challenge
One viral hoax was the Magnet Challenge, where people claiming to have received the vaccine would stick a refrigerator magnet to their shoulders. The woman who uploaded the first "Magnet Challenge" video claimed that the magnet was sticking to a microchip inserted into her arm by the vaccine. Her claims are physically unsubstantiated, however, a microchip does not have enough surface area to generate a magnetic attraction through multiple layers of skin and veins. Furthermore, if a microchip were stationary inside a vein, it would quickly cause a blood clot, leading to noticeable medical complications. Since this theory was far-fetched at best, a contingent of conspiracy theorists broke off and claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines were making humans magnetic in general. The theory gained enough traction that noted anti-vaccine activist Sherri Tenpenny shared it on Twitter, which led to the platform banning her for spreading misinformation.

Herman Cain's Anti-Mask Campaigning and Death
During the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Herman Cain used his prominence on social media, primarily Twitter, to claim that the Coronavirus pandemic was a hoax designed for the world governments to control their citizens. Cain made a point of refusing to wear a mask in public, claiming that asking him to do so was restrictive of his freedoms. On June 29, 2020, nine days after attending then-president Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Cain learned that he had contracted Coronavirus. On July 30, Cain succumbed to his illness at the age of 74. The irony of the situation was not lost on the general public, and Cain became a poster child for the importance of wearing a mask.

Damar Hamlin's Collapse and Subsequent Conspiracy Theories
On January 2, 2023, the Buffalo Bills visited the Cincinnati Bengals for a Week 17 Monday Night Football game that would determine which team would have the first seed in the AFC. With less than six minutes remaining in the first quarter, Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow completed a pass to wide receiver Tee Higgins, who turned up the field to try to gain extra yardage. Buffalo free safety Damar Hamlin ran to tackle Higgins, who responded by making legal contact to Hamlin's chest area. After the play ended, Hamlin stood up, then immediately collapsed on the field. Buffalo's medical staff administered CPR on Hamlin, who was rushed to the University of Cincinnati medical center.

As medical professionals were working on resuscitating Damar Hamlin, conservative activist Charlie Kirk posted a Tweet suggesting that Damar Hamlin had collapsed as a result of heart complications caused by the COVID-19 vaccine. Medical professionals speculated that Hamlin had suffered from commotio cordis, which occurs when a person is struck hard in the chest in a window of time lasting fractions of a second, disrupting the victim's heartbeat. However, Kirk doubled down on his claim after a video surfaced of Damar Hamlin (who had made a full recovery) refusing to address the cause of his collapse. Others on social media quickly spread the theory that Hamlin's heart had been weakened by the COVID-19 vaccine, and that because Pfizer is a sponsor of the National Football League, league officials instructed him not to answer questions about the cause of his collapse.