A growing number of scientists and doctors are making viral videos on TikTok to provide information on COVID-19 vaccines.
“We may be nerds, but we all feel quite passionately that we want to help, you know, and we want to do the right thing,” said Dr. Shiv Pillai, Director of the Harvard Immunology Graduate Program.
Pillai is one of dozens of health experts from all over the world that make up Team Halo. They're informing and answering questions about COVID-19 vaccine development to try and reduce hesitancy.
Pillai went into great detail with us about messenger mRNA, part of what's used to develop the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. He included why it’s safe and effective, as well as the side effects that would be simple to pinpoint.
But on TikTok, Pillai uses poems to get his points across.
"The vaccine it will change our lives. To get a shot is to be smart. To make this virus bite the dust, let us all just do our part,” said Pillai.
In other videos, he talks about a child he treated as an intern. The boy died in his hands from tetanus because he wasn't vaccinated.
“You can have kids playing in the dirt, who will get tetanus one day and there's very little you can do if it's gone past a day or two,” said Pillai.
Many of the Team Halo experts understand and sympathize with vaccine hesitancy. Even doctors have questions, which they are there to answer.
“The thing about Scott Atlas, who is responsible for a lot of disinformation, he doesn't fully understand the science. He is a physician and there are many physicians who don't understand that much science. I mean, I can say this, frankly, because I'm a physician and you know in my whole life, I saw patients. So, I know this. This is true.”