"Immune Boosting" in the time of COVID: selling immunity on Instagram

Darren N Wagner; Alessandro R Marcon; Timothy Caulfield

doi:10.1186/s13223-020-00474-6

"Immune Boosting" in the time of COVID: selling immunity on Instagram

Allergy Asthma Clin Immunol. 2020 Sep 3:16:76. doi: 10.1186/s13223-020-00474-6. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Darren N Wagner¹, Alessandro R Marcon¹, Timothy Caulfield¹

Affiliation

¹ Health Law Institute, Faculty of Law, Law Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H5 Canada.

Abstract

"Immune boosting" is a trending topic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of "immune boosting" is scientifically misleading and often used to market unproven products and therapies. This paper presents an analysis of popular immune-boosting posts from Instagram. Of the sampled posts, all promoted "immune boosting" as beneficial, nearly all involved commercial interests, and many used scientific and medical rhetoric in their messaging.

Keywords: COVID-19; Immune boosting; Immunity; Instagram; Social media.