Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 5, 1 Mei 2021 — Using Tik Tok as a COVID-19 Teaching Tool [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Using Tik Tok as a COVID-19 Teaching Tool

By Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi What do TikTok, energetic choreography and songs by Cardi B and Ariana Grande have in eommon? Dr. Kara Wong Ramsey is using them to raise awareness about C0VID-19 and what ean be done to provide protection from the contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes it. "People have posted a lot of humorous, entertaining videos on TikTok, but I realized social media platforms like it have heeome valuable educational tools," said Wong Ramsey, a neonatologist at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children. "We've gone from just writing words to creating memes to doing personalized videos." Technology has made it easy for just about everyone to shoot, edit and add audio and special effects to their videos; Wong Ramsey learned by trlal and error and watching YouTube tutorials. She enjoys acting and dancing, so she felt comfortable being on camera to produce her COVID-19 content on TikTok. Although her presentations are short - most are just 15 seconds - they capture viewers' attention with lively music and movements, interesting transitions and fun accessories such as cat ears and scrub caps with Disney characters. Wong Ramsey's videos are simple; her goal is to offer just a few key sound bites that hopefully will motivate viewers to seek out more information. Among her messages: • The COVID- 1 9 vaccines provide more antibody production than natural infection and may help boost immunity in people previously infected • Efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increases from 50 to 95 percent after the second dose • Maximum protection from those vaccines is attained two weeks after the second dose • Most eommon reactions have been fever, headache, sore arm and muscle aches for a few days • There has been an average of only five cases of severe allergic reactions per 1 million doses of those vaccines • Vaccine studies for children as young as 12 years are underway (last month, Moderna announced it has begun testing children as young as 6 months old) "Elevator speech is a term I learned in a leadership class," Wong Ramsey said. "Pretend you're in an elevator with a CEO and you want to pitch an idea to him or her. You have only about 30 seconds to do that before the door opens and the CEO walks away. The purpose of an elevator speech is to make a lasting impression in that really short time - to

explain why you think your idea is important and why the person you're talking with should think it's important too. In essence, my videos are elevator speeches with visuals." She posted her first COVID-19-related video on TikTok in August 2020. Since then, she has produced nine more (go to www.tiktok.eom/@noelani82), and she plans to eonhnue doing it, in part to allay fears about the vaccines. "Data has shown the vaccines that are available have remarkable efficacy, but I know many people are concerned about how quickly they were developed," Wong Ramsey said. "They're saying, 'The vaccines have been out for less than a year; are they really safe? How do I know they're okay for me? I'm not quite sure I want to take it. I want to wait and see.'" To build puhlie confidence in the vaccines, she believes health-care workers need to step forward and say they've studied the data and think it's sound. They also should emphasize they were comfortable getting the vaccine and have encouraged their loved ones to do it, too.

Wong Ramsey points out the power of mo'olelo. "Advice our doctors give us and reports on the research have merit, but what we in the Native Hawaiian community really want to know is if someone close to us has been vaccinated, and, if so, how did he or she feel afterward," she said. "It's important for all of us to share our knowledge and experiences with our friends, family, neighbors and colleagues. Learning about the virus, COVID-19 and the vaccines is an ongoing process, and we are all writing that story." I Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi has written 12 books and countless newspaper, magazine and website articles about Hawai'i' s history, culture, food and lifestyle.

Dr. Kara Wong Ramsey on the job at the Kapi'oloni Medical Center. Photo: Courtesy