It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a vaccine?
The US government and the Children’s Hospital Association have entered into an unusual partnership to encourage American kids to get their COVID vaccines--with DC Superheroes. Immediately, Reddit started to ask: can Superman even get a vaccine? Won’t his skin break the needle?
Superman (public domain)
But then I started to wonder: would Superman get the vaccine? He’s a young, powerful, white man from a very red state. That hasn’t exactly been the group of people jumping to be first in line. Superman seems really confident in his ability to tell the good guys from the bad guys. But can he tell the good information from the bad? Could he possibly end up in a social media echo chamber? Would Superman, America’s paean of truth and justice, spread misinformation on social media?
Not on purpose, I’m sure, but all it takes is not double checking. Does Superman double check before he knocks criminal’s heads together? Does he double check before he forwards a shocking tweet that sounds true?
Superman, cape flipped, arms akimbo (public domain)
Or does he heroically flip his cape back and hold his arms akimbo as he forwards more “evidence” that vaccines are a government conspiracy?
You know who’s probably really good at fact-checking, though? Clark Kent. He’s a journalist, trained before the advent of social media. He will see a shocking tweet and check it out. He’ll be able to tell a reliable witness from a fake expert. He’ll be able to weigh different opinions and understand when there is real controversy and when there is a troll.
Clark Kent (public domain)
And Clark will know he doesn’t understand all the possible perspectives. Having lived a double life, he knows there are at least two very different ways to live. He’s primed to wonder about others’ experiences and how those differing experiences have affected their lives.
Clark lives with a secret. He’s someone who can’t bring his whole self to others. He shows up at work, at lunch, on dates hiding his true self. He knows what it’s like to be uncomfortable in your own skin. Or to think you may not be accepted if people knew who you really are. Or where you are really from. Yeah, he’s white-passing. But every cell in his body knows he’s an alien. A refugee. An immigrant. No, he doesn’t have papers. And, no he doesn’t know a lot about his native land or his native culture. Only that it was a once great society, different than this one, now gone. He knows what it’s like to fear being thought of as other than fully human because of his ethnicity.
Baby Clark escapes from a dying planet (public domain)
Clark knows that power cuts both ways. Like the power of our yellow sun, which gently warms us and feeds our farms, and, trapped here by chemicals and pollutants of our own making, destroys us.
Clark decides to live his days without using his power, only running for the phone booth to transform into Superman occasionally. Maybe Clark is familiar enough with power to know it isn’t always a force for good. Maybe he’s more likely to follow the money. Maybe he has become a bit suspicious of powerful forces, unmoored from morality.
If I was going to take medical advice from a superhero, I’d choose Clark Kent over Superman any day. I want advice from someone who knows how to fact check, who questions power and is skeptical of what he hears, who listens to different stories and perspectives. I’d want to talk to someone who understands when I’m not sure the powers that be have my true interests at heart. Because I wasn’t born in Kansas either. I don’t always blend in either. I'd want to talk with Clark. He gets it.
Clark Kent, probably fact checking a tweet (public domain)