UK Edition
Anna Blakney snaps her fingers and sings into the camera. The backdrop is understated, ordinary even. If it wasn’t for the bright blue of her surgical gown you’d be forgiven for thinking she was just an average social media user. But she’s not.
Dr Blakney works for Imperial College, London. She’s filming in the department of infectious diseases, where she and her colleagues are developing and testing a coronavirus vaccine.
Her catchy tune has been viewed at least 28,000 times on TikTok. That’s a small win in comparison to some of her other videos.
“I wouldn't say that's my most successful one,” she tells The Telegraph. I have a video where I pretended to knock over a vial of vaccine that has almost 16 million views now, which is crazy."
The 30-year-old American bio-engineer has become an unexpected star on the short-form video app most known for popularising complicated dance moves, whipped-coffee tutorials and ‘talking dogs’ named Bunny.
So far her creative clips have amassed more than 208,000 followers and millions more likes. But she’s not just posting for fun, she was invited on to the platform to show the world what it takes to create a vaccine from scratch following a coronavirus Q&A session on Reddit.
She is member of Team Halo, a collaboration between the United Nations and the Vaccine Confidence Project, an initiative run by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“The idea is to directly connect scientists who are working on Covid-19 with the general public to kind of combat all the misinformation out there,” says Dr Blakney.
“[I’m on TikTok to] provide people with videos of exactly how we make vaccines, how we test them in the lab, and to then answer their questions and have a dialogue in the comment section,” she said.
It’s a vital role. Since the start of the pandemic, wild claims about Covid-19, including suggestions that Bill Gates has bugged vaccines with microchips, have troubled the internet.
It’s become such a concern that Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, has repeatedly warned that a dual pandemic of disease and misinformation has infected the world.
The real-world harm of such conspiracy theories cannot be underestimated. Extremist movements born on social media shook America this week. Meanwhile, Britain has had to contend with its equal share of anti-maskers and lockdown skeptics who have been radicalised by unsubstantiated claims published across various platforms.
Professor Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the LSHTM, said a "tsunami" of misinformation has likewise contributed to rising levels of vaccine hesitancy across the world.
"For every new piece of information about vaccines, there was I would say almost tenfold of all kinds of interpretations of it, and misinterpretations, and purposeful diversions," she told a Royal Society of Medicine webinar on Thursday.
TikTok is not immune to this sort of discourse and the fact that videos can amass hundreds of thousands of views within hours makes it all the more difficult to control the spread of misleading claims, says American TikToker Dr Morgan Noc, who uses a pseudonym on the app.
"One thing that's particularly challenging is that myths and conspiracy theories are just inherently much more viral than scientific information," he tells The Telegraph.
“You can debate over whether people should be getting their health information from TikTok or from other social media, regardless of what you think they should, they are," he adds.
At the start of the pandemic, the PhD scientist – who specialises in creating therapeutics for respiratory diseases – was, like many users, a passive scroller.
Now he uses the platform and his expertise to bust harmful myths about the coronavirus pandemic – with astonishing results: some of his videos generate as many as 1.5 million views a piece.
“In a way I do feel it's sort of like this strange scientific responsibility [to tackle these myths]," he says. “Around 50 per cent of Americans, for example, in a recent poll, said they are hesitant about getting the vaccine, because they have questions that need to be answered."
“If those questions are answered maybe they'll be open to getting them, which will be good for their health.”
When the Telegraph asked TikTok how it deals with misinformation on its platform, a spokesperson said: "The safety of our community is a top priority. Our Community Guidelines make clear that we do not allow misinformation and we take action wherever required, including by permanently banning accounts.
"TikTok allows for positive and creative expression and we are proud to support the doctors and scientists of Team Halo as they work tirelessly to keep the public informed about the vaccine."
However, while the app’s guidelines prohibit "misinformation that could cause harm", this does little to quash the viral appeal of such content, says Dr Karan Rajan.
“A lot of people don't have a science background. Misinformation often sounds sexy and believable, that's the whole point of, you know, fantasy, and people believe it,” he tells the Telegraph.
With 2.7 million followers, the NHS surgeon and university lecturer is one of the most followed experts on the platform. His channel, which began on YouTube in 2010, aims to entertain and educate people by explaining everyday medical phenomenons.
TikTok is not without its issues, he says, but “it's important to note as well, a lot of people are hesitant rather than antivax". By having an open and frank discussion about these concerns on the platform, he hopes to change more minds.
“Just because there's a lot of misinformation doesn't mean that that needs to be the only thing that people are seeing,” adds Dr Blakney. “I think creating content that's natural and data driven is also really important.”
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security