We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katrine Wallace. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katrine below.

Hi Katrine, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I was on social media a lot at the beginning of the pandemic for the same reason everybody else was. I was bored during the stay-at-home order and scrolling on my phone to pass the time. In addition to seeing videos of people’s pets, their food, and TikTok dances, I was also unfortunately seeing a lot of COVID-19 misinformation. At that time, there were many posts suggesting that COVID-19 wasn’t even real: it was just a massive ploy to throw the election. I have a doctorate in epidemiology, so this obviously bothered me because this was my area of expertise.

I never set out to be a social media influencer. It all happened completely by accident. After seeing the rampant misinformation on social media, I started to make my own videos and content to set the record straight on misinformation (naively, I thought that was possible) and to educate people about epidemiology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Going public as a science communicator was a big deal for me personally. In high school I didn’t really fit in. I was a nerdy punk weirdo dressed in black every day. I went to AP classes with popular kids, but they never invited me to their parties. When I went to college, I re-invented myself and I decided I wasn’t going to be a nerd anymore. I lived a double life: in science classes all day at my university, and at night I went to see bands at clubs and never talked about science. I made a whole new group of non-science friends. Flash forward to the Spring of 2020, and I still knew a lot of these same people who had no idea I was a secret science nerd.

Before the pandemic, when people would ask me what I did for a job, I would usually just say “I do research” or “I teach at a college”. I would never say I was an epidemiologist because whenever I did people would say “isn’t that a skin doctor?” I would say “no, that’s a dermatologist”, but by the time I started explaining it they had already moved on to something else. It was easier to skip the details.

When I started making social media content it was scary because I had spent my entire adult life trying to not be the science nerd. Now here I was online, outing myself! But the misinformation I kept seeing motivated me with a sense of duty I felt for public health, and that outweighed any shame I felt about it.

Initially I was making content for my own friends and family in my networks, which weren’t very large. As the content started getting shared, more people started to follow me. Every day there would be thousands more followers. I honestly couldn’t believe that so many people wanted to hear me talking about epidemiology. People I knew would say things to me like “I didn’t even know you were an epidemiologist, but my cousin sent me your video!”.

Since putting myself out there, my life and career have changed in immeasurable ways. I have had many opportunities to collaborate with other academics, I have been profiled in the media several times, and I have been invited to join science communication initiatives with the World Health Organization and the United Nations. I have had professional opportunities that I never would have otherwise had.

I am proud that I did something scary and took a risk by putting myself out there. I learned so much about how to be authentically myself by accidentally becoming a social media influencer and being myself feels good. I spent so much of my life trying to live a double life and be a “cool”, and I didn’t even realize the science nerd was cool.

I learned that I have something important to offer, and I am using it to help other people. Social media has enabled me to provide people with evidence-based information that I would not have been able to reach in any other way. I have enabled people make positive health choices for themselves and for their families during the pandemic. And that’s cool.

Katrine , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I got my Ph.D. in Epidemiology in 2013 and I currently am an Epidemiologist and Adjunct Professor at the University of Illinois Chicago, School of Public Health. I never stopped going to school until I got a PhD because all my life I have been an overachiever. I go all out.
I am also known as science communicator “Dr Kat” on my popular social media channels (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter) where I educate about epidemiology, vaccines, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

My science communication takes a lot of my time, but I do it voluntarily. I never do sponsorships or brand deals on social media because it is important for me to build trust with my followers. They need to feel comfortable that the health information I provide is not biased. My only goal on my platform is to provide evidence-based information that enables people to make good health decisions for themselves and their families.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

As a science communicator (especially a female one) it is extremely important to have a thick skin. Currently there is a political backlash against science, and there is much anti-science aggression on the internet. I have learned to not take anything personally, and to block people instead of engaging. I have had threats, sexually violent emails at work, ad hominem attacks on the daily, and accusations almost every day that I am being paid by “big pharma” or the “deep state” to make videos.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think people know that I am evidence-based in my approach, and that I do not make sensationalized content for views. I just want my content to be accurate and to reflect the current data. I also think people like my reassuring demeanor. I will educate about something potentially scary (a new COVID-19 variant for example) but I will always balance that with “here is what you can do” and provide them with a tangible list of things to help protect themselves, and also give them a feeling of control.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.epidemiologistkat.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/EPIDEMIOLOGISTKAT/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/epidemiologistkat/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DRKATEPI
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBtWkuk7Ki1R4JdzyaCSCdA
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@epidemiologistkat?lang=en

Image Credits
Headshot taken by Heather Stumpf, Chicago IL