The Wexner Medical Center at Ohio State has taken to memes as their new method of combating COVID-19 misinformation on the hospital’s Instagram page with the goal of educating the public and promoting the hospital’s scientific achievements. Credit: Courtesy of Kelly McDonald

Peppered between patient testimonials and newborn Buckeyes, the Wexner Medical Center’s Instagram has incorporated a new way of combating COVID-19 misinformation: memes.

The medical center’s social media and engagement team has uploaded memes and pop culture moments like Aaron Rodgers’ recent positive COVID-19 diagnosis and unvaccinated status to the hospital’s Instagram page, @osuwexmed. 

The memes follow the team’s larger goal of educating the public and promoting the hospital’s scientific achievements across all of its platforms, Kelly McDonald, director of social media and engagement, said. 

“There’s science or not science, and we are on the side of science and we’re not going to step back from that,” McDonald said. “There may be some that are not as funny as the others, or that not everybody finds as funny as the first ones we did, but all we can do is keep pushing that information out.”

Though she dipped her toes in memes at the beginning of 2020 with positive reception, McDonald said Joey Dillon, internal social media lead at the medical center, was influential in the decision to create more trendy posts on the hospital’s social media accounts. After a blessing from their boss, they began creating more memes, she said. 

However, McDonald said what’s underneath the memes are the important part of the posts: detailed captions dispelling myths and misinformation about COVID-19.

“Yes, we’re reeling you in with the meme itself,” Dillon said. “But we’re trying to bring them in and see that caption.”

McDonald and Dillon said combining humor with hard facts about a global pandemic isn’t easy, but they try to ensure the posts are educational and respectful to the subject matter. 

“It’s a careful balance of not trying to make COVID seem like something that’s lighthearted,” McDonald said. “I think that’s where Joey and I are often having conversations like, ‘How should we phrase this caption?’ and, ‘Is this too much of a joke?’ ”

McDonald said reception has been mostly positive, with the best-performing meme showcasing rapper Future as a toxic ex-boyfriend, garnering the second-most likes on the account and being shared over 3,000 times. 

“Knowing there won’t be long-term side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine got me thinking about how I thought we would be long-term,” the Future meme photo stated. “Anyway, you don’t have to respond I just wanted to say my feelings for you haven’t degraded like mRNA in the vaccine does within hours to days after the injection.”

The caption details how the vaccines have no significant long-term side effects and explains the science behind mRNA vaccines and “rare adverse events,” such as myocarditis –– inflammation of the heart muscle.

“I think it was the Met Gala meme that someone was like, ‘Whatever intern runs your social media deserves a raise,’ ” McDonald said. “And I wrote back, ‘I’m 34, but thanks.’ ”

The educational content doesn’t stop with memes; the social media team has worked since the beginning of the pandemic to promote best practices for public health and the progress the medical center has made in terms of vaccination rates on Instagram. McDonald said these campaigns were met with opposition in the comments section, particularly from people who mistrust or refuse vaccines, which became frustrating.

McDonald said the team aimed to use their social media accounts as the best way to reach people looking for verifiable and scientifically accurate information about the vaccine.

“For me, it’s not the people in the comments who are saying, ‘F— the vaccine, we’re not getting this, it’s the mark of the beast,’ ” McDonald said. “It’s more about the people who are reading those comments who maybe haven’t made a decision and don’t know what’s true or not.”

Dillon said as a public institution, the social media team cannot delete comments, so it strictly replies to them with scientific reasoning. The accounts are run and monitored by the team 24/7, and the constant back and forth can be tiring, he said.

“Yes, we’re an institution, but there are people behind it and I think people kind of tend to forget that humans have emotions and feelings,” Dillon said. “Just like the frontline workers who have been going through all of this, it’s also mentally taxing for us to fight the battle.”