  We examine an unexpected but significant source of positive public health
messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic -- K-pop fandoms. Leveraging more than 7
million tweets related to mask-wearing and K-pop between March 2020 and
December 2021, we analyzed the online spread of the hashtag \#WearAMask and
vaccine-related tweets amid anti-mask sentiments and public health
misinformation. Analyses reveal the South Korean boyband BTS as one of the most
significant driver of health discourse. Tweets from health agencies and
prominent figures that mentioned K-pop generate 111 times more online responses
compared to tweets that did not. These tweets also elicited strong responses
from South America, Southeast Asia, and rural States -- areas often neglected
in Twitter-based messaging by mainstream social media campaigns. Network and
temporal analysis show increased use from right-leaning elites over time.
Mechanistically, strong-levels of parasocial engagement and connectedness allow
sustained activism in the community. Our results suggest that public health
institutions may leverage pre-existing audience markets to synergistically
diffuse and target under-served communities both domestically and globally,
especially during health crises such as COVID-19.
