Toronto calls in the superheroes to help with vaccinating young children against COVID-19
Toronto’s public health officials were faced with a conundrum: how to ensure the health of residents and visitors alike while still protecting the most vulnerable people in our society.
Some of Toronto’s public health directors had begun to think that they had come up with a novel way to protect the public: a program called the Heroes of Public Health program.
A program aimed at providing superheroes to the local population to help with health issues, it would have a dual purpose in the minds of officials: while it would ensure the health of everyone in Toronto, it would also protect the most vulnerable of our society.
Health Minister Dr. David Caplan saw the program as an excellent way to get creative. He saw the potential of giving the public access to heroes like Superboy, Mr. B, Wonder Twins, and a number of other superheroes the public might not normally have access to, and he saw how it could protect the most vulnerable of us.
The program was to see the public wear a hero T-shirt to remind them just how important it is to protect ourselves from the virus. Once the public had been exposed to the hero T-shirts, they would be encouraged to share their stories on social media with the hashtag #HPHHero.
Within hours of launching the campaign, Caplan had received a flood of emails from the public, asking what would happen if a certain hero T-shirt was found in someone’s home or their car.
The idea was to create a buzz around the campaign so it would catch on quickly. In the days leading up to their campaign launch, they had heard from the public how this new campaign could help them protect themselves.
A number of them had expressed an interest in being superheroes, and this was one way to get them involved.
“I knew we absolutely had to do it,” Caplan said.
So this is how the program came into being.
The idea for a public health program with superheroes came along as a response to the needs that his team was seeing as they prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was an opportunity he didn’t want to miss out on.
“We knew that while we can protect ourselves, the people who are most vulnerable might not get that same service or protection. There