Author: benjancewicz

https://www.wonkette.com/p/tx-lt-gov-dan-patrick-found-the-real-origin-of-covid-and-it-is-black-people

Texas is in the midst of a coronavirus surge, helped along by Gov. Greg Abbott’s absolute ban on mask and vaccine mandates. The state has lost more than 53,000 residents to the disease, and is rapidly running out of ICU beds. Earlier this month the Department of State Health Services requested five mortuary trailers to be parked in San Antonio as “a normal part of preparedness to have these available to support local jurisdictions in case they need them.” In short, it’s really bad.

With Texas’s governor rolling out the welcome mat for COVID, even going so far as to catch it himself, it fell to Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to defend the administration’s honor on Laura Ingraham’s White Power COVID Love In last night. 

“They’re coming after your state … because of increased COVID numbers. Hospitalizations, deaths are up in Texas, and there’s a direct assault on your governor’s policies and your state’s policies, what’s your response?” Ingraham asked, setting up the tee for Patrick to bunt off of, like the littlest peewee baseball player in the league.

Because we all know that the real victims here aren’t people dying of a preventable disease, but the people refusing to prevent it.

“Well, Laura, the COVID is spreading, particularly, most of the numbers are with the unvaccinated. And the Democrats like to blame Republicans on that. Well, the biggest group in most states are African Americans who have not been vaccinated. And last time I checked, over 90 percent of them vote for Democrats in our major cities and major counties,” Patrick said.

And through the Botox and shamelessness, a momentary cloud passed across Laura’s face. For it was then she realized she and her guest were going to be the subject of yet another withering takedown in the Post for being a racist garbage fire that poisons the country.

Because Dan Patrick was lying, of course. While Black Americans are getting vaccinated at slightly lower rates than their White counterparts, there are simply a whole lot more White people in this country — and in Texas, for that matter — which means a whole lot more unvaccinated White people are wandering around spreading their germs like a bunch of assholes.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation , Black Texans represent 12 percent of the state’s population, but they constitute just nine percent of the cohort of vaccinated people. White people make up 41 percent of the population, but only 38 percent of this group are vaccinated. Which means that there are roughly three times as many unvaccinated White Texans as there are Black ones.

But of course Dan Patrick doesn’t give a shit about math or objective reality, not when there’s racist tropes about dirty Black people to be peddled.

“It’s up to the Democrats to get, just as it’s up to Republicans, to try to get as many people vaccinated,” he continued, making clear that he feels no responsibility whatsoever to care for his own melanin-rich constituents.

“And if people don’t want the vaccination, we’re not going to force it on them. That’s their individual right,” he said, careful to toe the party line that it’s totally cool to choose to be a vector for a deadly disease. “But in terms of criticizing the Republicans for this, we’re encouraging people who want to take it to take it. But they’re doing nothing for the African American community that has a significant, high number of unvaccinated people.”

Friends, if I might veer into the personal on a Friday afternoon, may I just say FUCK THIS GUY SO HARD. Because, like myself, Dan Patrick is from Baltimore, so this shit is humiliating to me on a whole ‘nother level. His conduct is vile by any metric, but it’s particularly disgusting because he hails from a majority Black city where he grew up around people of color. He doesn’t have to look at Baltimore’s COVID dashboard to know that it’s a lie to say that Democrats are “doing nothing for the African American community.” But if he did, he’d see that 65 percent of Baltimore residents have had at least one shot, which is a full 20 percent higher than Patrick’s constituents in the Lone Star State. Because, like Obama, we really do care .

But life is too short to dwell on assholes like Dan Patrick. So instead let’s give a shoutout to the Baltimore City Health Department, which is killing it on social media.

In a cheeky campaign to take on anti-vaxxers, BCHD is plastering social media with hilarious memes.

No brunch for you, DEBRA!

“[Residents] were dealing with friends and members who were going out to parties and other things they shouldn’t be doing but didn’t have the language to communicate the harms, so we turned some of those into memes,” BCHD consultant Benjamin Jancewicz told USA Today .

They’re here for a history lesson, for those of us who grew up next door to a world famous medical institution which consistently marginalized the city’s Black residents, but seem to have forgotten. Gee, Dan, do you think there’s a reason Black Americans might be a wee smidge leery of the medical establishment?

In 1899, Baltimore City Health Department Commissioner C. Hampson Jones, led racist efforts that targeted forced smallpox vaccinations of Black, Jewish, and immigrant communities in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/YAqjepmq4R

— Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) (@BMore_Healthy) June 24, 2021

And they understand that we are in this together, each of us responsible for the other.

Every tribe, Every language, One Baltimore.

Get vaxxed: https://t.co/kmKfc0dLQD 443.984.8650 pic.twitter.com/EClXVmo241

— Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) (@BMore_Healthy) August 18, 2021

They have a mean clapback game, too.

Thomas, you seem to be interested in prostate exams.

The Men's Health Center (MHC), operated by Total Health Care, Inc., is located at 1515 W. North Avenue and provides primary care, screening and health education to uninsured males residing in Baltimore City. https://t.co/zHFS7gncIY pic.twitter.com/KFC6w7LaON

— Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD) (@BMore_Healthy) August 18, 2021

So I don’t want to hear shit about Democrats not taking care of Black people, and certainly not from guys like Dan Patrick who are working to kill as many of their own constituents as possible. Get the shot, put on your mask, and shut up.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/08/18/baltimore-city-covid-vaccine-memes/8123916002

The city of Baltimore wanted to meet people where they were to provide COVID-19 vaccination information, so they turned to social media and used memes, ones that feature hilarious conversations while debunking myths.

And in the last few weeks, the city’s messages have gone viral with a positive outcome , according to Adam Abadir, director of communications for the Baltimore City Health Department.

“We can be authentic, we can be funny and we can reach people who we wouldn’t have been able to reach otherwise,” Abadir said.

At the beginning of the pandemic, the health department used more standard communications to get the information out about COVID-19, vaccinations and harm reduction principles.

After social media users reached out with questions on how to communicate safety principles with friends and family, members of the health department were scratching their heads – until a viral moment set off the light bulb.

In January, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott garnered media attention when he told a man, “Shorty, pull your mask up, man.”

Video of the incident set social media ablaze, and suddenly the health department had a new strategy.

“I remember walking around the city and hearing people say ‘Shorty, pull your mask up,'” Abadir said. “To me, it meant if we could be authentic in our communications but also slide in a creative way to residents about harm reduction principles.”

A lot of the conversations used in the memes were conversations the health department knew people were having, according to Benjamin Jancewicz, a consultant for the department. 

“[Residents] were dealing with friends and members who were going out to parties and other things they shouldn’t be doing but didn’t have the language to communicate the harms, so we turned some of those into memes,” He said. 

The memes feature people debating on going to a house party or getting mimosas and also tap into some common misconceptions about what will help or what will hurt you.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10159263819050642&set=a.178094880641&ref=embed_POST

The first memes when out in early April or late May, with the department doing a new one every couple of weeks. Some of them have been shared in the same post which has really been making an impact, according to Abadir. 

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive, but there have been a few trolls,” he said.

In response to one troll who said their keto diet, full of kale salads, was keeping them COVID-19 free, the department turned it into a meme.

“The way we have been engaging with trolls is by showing how ridiculous they are, but that kind of humor disarms them,” Jancewicz said. “We’ve had multiple instances where we’ve been confronted with trolls, and they say, ‘That’s really funny.'”

Other cities have utilized different tactics, like the Los Angeles Dodgers who are offering two free game vouchers to those who attend their mobile vaccination clinic during a seven-game homestand.

The state of Louisiana partnered with businesses to provide free alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks to people who can prove they were vaccinated within the last seven days, according to the National Governors Association.

For Baltimore, Abadir hopes the memes will make people laugh but also will be shared friends and family members who aren’t vaccinated. 

“Memes are the language of the internet, and we need to be a part of that conversation,” Abadir said. “Not everyone is going to laugh at every joke, but what we are talking about is really important for people to hear.”

There is no way for the department to know if the memes are directly tied to people getting vaccinated, but Baltimore’s increase in residents getting the vaccine is consistently one of the highest in Maryland, according to Abadir.

“We want to acknowledge that the stakes are really high,” Abadir said. “We are humbled by the attention we get online, but the work continues.” 

Follow reporter Asha Gilbert @Coastalasha. Email: agilbert@usatoday.com.

‘What the FAQ is delta?’: The story behind Baltimore’s viral initiative to promote vaccination

In the months leading up to the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., Adam Abadir fielded many questions about best practices from Baltimore City residents.

As the communications director for the city’s health department, he observed that many people were already following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance for things such as social distancing and masking. But they often contacted the department seeking advice for the most effective ways to have conversations about public health recommendations with others.

Then, in January, Abadir and his colleagues watched as Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said to a community activist at a news conference: “Shorty, pull your mask up.”

That viral moment fueled a realization for Abadir and Benjamin Jancewicz, who creates graphics and runs the department’s social media channels: Sharing information in a new way that isn’t confrontational, they noticed, would likely result in more people spreading the message.

The city’s creative social media push to encourage vaccination, using graphics with phrases such as “What the FAQ is delta?,” comes as much of the country experiences a spike in coronavirus cases. As of Friday, 64.5% of Baltimore City residents have received at least one vaccine dose.

“If you package information in a new way, that’s not as confrontational, but also a little bit funny, you’re much more likely to see that work spread,” Abadir told WTOP. “That was the genesis of the idea of using memes as a way to communicate harm reduction principles.”

The county has used that approach since early April, when it shared a graphic promoting social distancing that said, “Love your elders? Prove it.” Jancewicz said the post was part of the county’s “Get Like Me” campaign, aimed at encouraging vaccination among the city’s youth after city leaders noticed a dramatic difference in vaccine uptake in younger residents.

In an attempt to speak directly to the city’s youth, Jancewicz used lyrics from a rap song and a generic photo of a grandmother.

“We used a rather traditional-looking grandmother who’s got a smirk on her face to encourage younger folk to step up their game a little bit, and have it be a bit of a competition,” Jancewicz said. “’If I can get vaxxed then you can get vaxxed’ type of thing.”

Each new idea has several requirements: It has to be funny; it has to address a real community concern, and it has to include language that people use themselves and will share in their social circles.

Before vaccines were available, the pair used social graphics to promote safety tips, aiming to communicate that a considerable amount of community transmission occurred in restaurants and during house parties. Around the Easter holiday, a separate graphic encouraged testing.

One of the department’s more popular graphics came after a commenter wrote they were on a keto diet and frequently ate vegetables, so a vaccine wasn’t necessary to bolster their immune system. As a result, a graphic that says, “Salad doesn’t cure COVID, Connor” was crafted.

And that type of messaging has evolved into other graphics, such as another that says, “Ginger ale doesn’t cure COVID, Derrick!”

“A lot of these trolls that we have clapped back at find the humor in the things that we’re saying,” Jancewicz said. “[And they’ll say], ‘I actually did have some serious concerns, and I wanted to talk to somebody about that. … These are really icebreakers and they work really well.”

Most recently, the pair launched a series of infographics describing what’s known about the delta variant. While many experts and those in medical circles have explained it, Abadir said, few have been able to share what it means for people in simple terms. Hoping to clear confusion about a complicated topic, the department created a series of informative slides, beginning with one titled “What the FAQ is delta?”

The post with the graphics has 1,400 Facebook comments and has been shared more than 50,000 times.

“We wanted to make sure we give them something that not only they can laugh at, but that they can share with their friends,” Abadir said. “Because they may know somebody that doesn’t follow the rules, or doesn’t pay attention to the latest update from the Baltimore City Health Department.”

The department is always considering the best ways to share information with the public, Abadir said, and Jancewicz witnessed the success of the latest initiative firsthand. While waiting in line with his daughter at a recent vaccine clinic, Jancewicz overheard a few workers speaking in Spanish about ads they had seen in the local Spanish newspaper.

They were some the department’s memes that had been translated, and the messaging evidently worked, since the group was also in line to get vaccinated.

“It’s one thing to be able to see all of the follower counts climb, and be interviewed by different news organizations,” Jancewicz said. “But to actually see people in line for vaccination because of the stuff that we did is really, really cool.”

https://slate.com/technology/2021/08/baltimore-covid-vaccine-social-media-memes-derrick-debra-connor.html

The Baltimore City Health Department understands the assignment.

Over the past week, the department’s social media presence has garnered widespread applausefor the way it’s using epidemiologist-endorsed memes to spread accurate information online about the coronavirus—including the delta variant, why you shouldn’t drink bleach to cure COVID-19, and an explainer on this past spring’s Johnson + Johnson vaccine pause.

It’s a clever initiative. Memes, the good ones anyway, spread easily and speak directly to a particular moment in time. Black social media users are often the driving force of meme culture, and Black Americans are also less likely to be vaccinated, at least in part due to limited access to vaccines and valid distrust. And while the number of Black folks getting vaccinated in Baltimore has been trending upward, only 35.5 percent of Black residents are fully vaccinated.

Within this circumstance, Adam Abadir, the communications director for the city’s health department, saw an opportunity to dispel misinformation and bolster all the work being done on the ground by, as he says, talking to people in their own language.

I spoke with Abadir and Benjamin Jancewicz, a consultant for the health department who works on the COVID-19 social media campaign, about how it came about, meme culture, and why they chose those specific names for the characters in their ads. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Julia Craven: The ad campaign reminds me of meme culture. Was that intentional? 

Abadir: Absolutely. Memes are the language of the internet. And what we’re trying to do is be a part of that conversation—and it seems to be working. We’ve been pushing out information like this before the vaccine was widely available—harm reduction principles, wearing a mask, keeping six feet of distance, and that kind of stuff. We kept getting questions from our followers on social media who were doing these things about how to convince friends and family members to do them as well.

Back in February, there was this really viral moment where Mayor Brandon Scott was addressing activist Shorty Davis at a press conference. Davis’s mask was sort of falling under his face. So Scott said, “Shorty, pull your mask up.” It was this really cool moment. It taught us that there’s an opportunity to tell people how to practice harm reduction principles if we come at them from a slightly different angle. We can totally message how to stay safe during a pandemic if we’re meeting people where they are and if we’re using language that they use themselves. So that was when we started using names as a vehicle to start introducing concepts.

Later on that transformed into dealing with some misinformation head on.

Jancewicz: What we were finding is that a lot of people wanted to have these conversations with the people around them, with their friends and family, but they didn’t always feel the best equipped. They didn’t know exactly what to say. At the health department, we’re able to drive through all that with an ice breaker and really break it all apart. That’s what we saw our mayor doing. He was speaking very directly, in plain English, and that’s what people are trying to do when they have these conversations with the people around them.

There’s all this apprehension and, really, respectability politics around trying to have these conversations. And we decided to go through with a wrecking ball, and just say, “No, this is not OK.” And you don’t have to put up with it. These actions have real consequences. That’s the energy behind it.

How did you come up with the specific scenarios for the ads? Because they are very specific. Like, my Nana always had a soda and some crackers around when my stomach was hurting.

Abadir: That one was personal to me. If you’re feeling sick, drink some ginger ale, eat some crackers, and go lay down on the couch and watch The Price Is Right. It’s real. It’s real authentic conversations that we’re having. We were seeing online conversations happen about what people believe will protect them. People are very open and honest on the internet about how they feel about the vaccines, about how they want to “protect themselves” from COVID.

We’re not trying to insult your grandmother here. Grandma had a great point: Medically, ginger can totally reduce your upset stomach, but that’s not the same as protecting yourself from a pandemic that killed millions.

Jancewicz: Some of the conversations were brought to us. The ad we did saying “Salads don’t cure COVID, Connor!,” was inspired by a troll that had come into our mentions. They were saying, “I don’t need your vaccine. I’m on this keto diet. I’m eating my kale and I’m working out,” and all that stuff. We started taking the trolls’ language, feeding it back to them, and pointing out how ridiculous they sound. And using that in ways that made everybody else laugh.

We found that humor is a fantastic tool to deal with this kind of stuff, because when people are trolling us and saying these kinds of things, they’re already at a certain level where feeding them raw information isn’t going to get to them. But diffusing the situation and making them laugh actually works. And we have found—over and over again at this point—that sometimes when we are able to make our trolls laugh, we’re able to start conversations with people who would otherwise be our enemies.

Abadir: One of the weird quirks of social media is sometimes you aren’t sure if the person you’re engaging with is actually a real person or if they’re a bot. We try to distinguish people who have legitimate questions about vaccines from an anti-vax troll whose sole mission is to discourage other people from getting vaccinated.

Are these conversations happening online, in-person, or both?

Abadir: Our social media strategy is only one component of an overarching, larger communication strategy. One of the things that the health department has been doing for months now is standing up our value ambassadors. These are folks who are door-knocking in communities with low vaccination rates and have been trained, gone through focus groups paid by the health department, and they are representatives of the communities that they’re going into.

Not all of these conversations are going to be online and so we need that nuanced, face to face interaction.

Jancewicz: All of these different levels of contact feed each other. We have meetings where we talk to the people who are out at the vaccination clinics, the needle exchange programs, and all of these various outreach points in our community. They talk about what’s happening in the communities. We talk about what’s happening online. This cross conversation allows us to say, “This is a conversation that’s happening right now in Baltimore, we should address it online.” Or, “This is a conversation that’s happening online. We should address it in the field.”

The names—Connor, Debra, Derrick—align really well with the scenarios and characters. How did you come up with them? 

Abadir: I know people named Derrick. I know people named Debra. These are based in real world scenarios, and real conversations that people are really having. It’s less of a science, and more art.

Jancewicz: It very much runs in the vein of “Becky” and “Chad.” There are names that people will use in clapbacks automatically and we wanted something that expanded that range a little bit, but was also very, very Baltimore. The names we picked are names that you’ll hear in and around Baltimore—to the point where on Facebook people will tag people they know with the same name in the posts. We’re having multiple levels of conversation. We’ve even had people who are named Debra say, “I’m vaccinated but I know some Debra’s who aren’t. Let me share this.”

We talked about Karen, but honestly, it’s a little too on the nose.

Abadir: People ask all the time—especially about mimosas for brunch—why didn’t we name her Karen, but that’s not what we’re doing here.

After the ads went viral, I saw critiques from several prominent physicians and public health experts, who said the ads are shaming people for believing misinformation about COVID. 

Abadir: We don’t want to shame anyone for believing misinformation, but we want them to know that it’s misinformation. That is a slight difference. But, you know, at the end of the day, it’s hard to explain a joke to someone who doesn’t think it’s funny. And that’s OK, because we’re more than just jokes. We’re the health department. It’s not about tone. It’s about preventing hospitalizations. It’s about keeping people alive. It’s certainly criticism that we can take, but the goal isn’t to shame—it’s to explain that that thing you think is going to work is not and, this time, the stakes are higher.

How effective would you say the campaign has been at convincing unvaccinated people to get vaccinated?

Abadir: Unfortunately we don’t have the ability to say if someone went to a vaccination clinic directly because of a meme. But we see it in the sum of all the work that we’re doing. One of the really cool things about the Baltimore city health department is how intentional we’ve been since day one about vaccine access. We’ve taken the stance that we need to bring vaccines where people are. That means setting up mobile vaccination clinics in areas with low vaccination rates. We announced a vaccine home program where folks can make an appointment if they have trouble leaving their home for whatever reason, and our teams will come to you.

Even though we’ve seen a slowdown nationwide in terms of vaccination rates, Baltimore city’s percent increase in individuals getting vaccinated each week is consistently one of the highest in the state. We credit that to all the things we’re doing to reach people.

Memes, gifs and vaccine clapbacks: How the Baltimore Health Department is making public health messaging fun

The Baltimore City Health Department prides itself on being the oldest health department in the nation, having been around since 1793.

But you wouldn’t think of them as old if you follow them on Twitter.

In the past week, @BMore_Healthy has been racking up praise — and calls for a pay raise — for its expert use of memes, gifs and epidemiologist-approved graphics to share the latest public health information and encourage Baltimore residents to get the COVID vaccine.

Most importantly, people love their clapbacks.

“There wasn’t a particular quote, there wasn’t a particular tweet, but I think we just got tired of the anti-vaxxers,” said Adam Abadir, director of communications in the department.

After a tweet from a recent social media campaign picked up traction among anti-vaxxers, Abadir and Benjamin Jancewicz, a social media consultant with Zerflin, logged into Twitter last week to see the health department’s mentions filled responses from anti-vaccine trolls, most of whom did not appear to live in the city, they said.

“There was just a mountain of people who had decided that they were going to spend their weekends arguing with a health department and being devil’s advocates for a parasitic viral organism,” said Jancewicz. “When we woke up and we saw that pile of stuff, we’re like, ‘Why?’”

The two emphasized that they weren’t against people who were cautious or hesitant about getting the vaccine — in fact, they said they’ve spent most of their time on social media answering people’s questions about the vaccine and working to address their concerns.

“But to be out here and telling people to not get vaccinated, and that the science isn’t what it is… you can’t come to Baltimore doing that,” said Jancewicz. “We’re not gonna be anyone’s punching bag.”

So far, the new approach to social media seems to be working, the two said. In the past few days, they’ve gained almost 1,000 followers, and with more people paying attention to their content, have been able to more widely advertise walk-up vaccination clinics in the city.

“At the end of the day, our job is to promote science and public health. The more people who see and hear about us, the wider the audience we have to provide those messages,” Abadir said.

Jancewicz noted that being responsive to trolls not only gets them a lot of engagement on social media but also encourages people to be more vocal with their public health questions.

“We have found that on all social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit, that when we have started to respond with humor and to be more authentic with our responses, that a lot of people are like “Hey, that’s hilarious — I had a serious question, what about this?’” said Jancewicz.

The department’s social media presence encompasses more than just the Twitter memes that people have appreciated.

Last week, Health Commissioner Dr. Letitia Dzirasa hosted an Ask Me Anything on r/Baltimore, the subreddit for the city, answering questions about the vaccine and her plans for the department post-pandemic, but also a few about herself, including what her favorite sneakers were.

“In general, across social media, what we’re seeing is increased engagement, because people are responding to, not some of these canned responses, but I think people are tapping into the fact that real people are running these social media accounts,” Abadir said.

Abadir and Jancewicz said the key to their new approach to social media is authenticity, and part of that has come from taking cues from Mayor Brandon Scott’s presence on social media.

Scott, who’s gone viral on Twitter more than once since being sworn into office, has paved the way for city agencies to be more creative on social media, Abadir said.

In fact, it was Scott’s “Shorty, pull your mask up,” comment at a news conference that inspired its own social media campaign from the health department.

“I remember walking around Baltimore City after the fact and hearing other people say ‘Shorty, pull your mask up,’ when they saw people dropping it,” Abadir said.

Abadir said the department had gotten questions for weeks about how to have conversations with people who weren’t wearing masks, or weren’t wearing them properly.

One of the health department’s goals during the pandemic has been to provide people with the framework to have difficult conversations, whether it was about wearing masks at the beginning of the pandemic or about getting vaccinated in recent months, Abadir said.

“What we realized is, when ‘Shorty, pull your mask up’ came out, that meant that some folks who had that question now had an answer,” Abadir said.

The health department is trying be as authentically Baltimore as it can be, Abadir and Jancewicz said, both in its more serious public health messaging but also with its funny tweets.

“Baltimore is a city that has honestly been through a lot at different points in its history. And the way that it responds to those kinds of things is by binding together, making sure that we all take care of each other, and with humor,” Jancewicz said.

“The pandemic is a really difficult trial for Baltimore to come through. And so to speak with humor, and to speak with that kind of authenticity and to speak with that kind of, ‘We’ve got each other’s back,’ is who we are as a people, is who we are as a city. And as the Baltimore City Health Department, we’re just trying to reflect that.”