In an effort to refute misinformation regarding COVID-19, the Czech ruling party signed a CZK 500,000 contract with 21 and 22-year-old Anna Šulcová and Jakub Gulab to make videos convincing the public that vaccines were both safe, and cool.
The couple made a total of seven different short videos interviewing various health care experts sharing the benefits of vaccines and vouching for their safety and effectiveness.
After mounting criticism of the fact that the government was paying young “influencers” vast sums of money for very short, simple video clips, the couple ended up rescinding the contract and doing the whole thing for free.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was very grateful:
“I liked the idea that these successful young people told me they had been informing people about the pandemic on their social networks for a long time, and now they wanted to do a campaign with the office of our government, even for free. It’s great that my colleagues and I made it happen. I would like to thank them very much that they are helping the public with enlightenment.”
21-year-old Anna Šulcová said that with the videos, she aims to dispel myths by talking with experts and linking to the Czech government’s own COVID-19 information website.
“In each video, which you’re probably going to see very often across the social networks now, we dispel a lot of myths and spread substantiated information because we had the opportunity to work with those who understand everything the most. In each video, we also link you to the covid.god.cz website where the experts describe each piece of misinformation in more detail. I’m very happy with this project; I believe in it, and I believe in us.”
