Katelyn Jetelina used social media during the COVID-19 pandemic to share information on viral transmission and vaccines. In February 2021 anti-vaccine activists hacked her Facebook and Instagram accounts, posting misinformation and soliciting followers' vaccination cards. After losing content, she moved to Substack on 8 February 2021 to gain greater ownership and transferability of subscriber data. Substack delivers email newsletters and hosts site content suited to longer-form, nuanced discussion, sending content directly to subscribers' inboxes. She later regained social-media control and continues to post infographics and videos there while using Substack for deeper engagement.
In February 2021, a group of anti-vaccine activists found a way into both accounts, using her platform to post and promote a different rhetoric. They even asked her followers to upload their COVID-19 vaccination cards for a chance to win US$1,000, in a bid to gain personal information. It was at this point that Jetelina decided she had to make a change.
It's lauded for its newsletter features - sending posts into the inboxes of subscribers - but content is also available on the site, as with a standard blog. One feature she especially liked, given her past experiences, was that her data was transferable: if you decide to leave, or have to leave, you can take a list of subscriber e-mails with you. On 8 February 2021, Jetelina started putting more energy into her Substack publication, which she calls Your Local Epidemiologist.
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