📅 The year is 2026.
🏝️ The place is Kingstonia, a small (and fictional!) island nation in the Pacific.
🦠 H2D2 Dolphin Flu is spreading rapidly across the Pacific.
⚕️ The International Health Organisation (IHO) has recommended pre-emptive compulsory vaccination for all Kingstonians.
🏛️ But last year’s razor-thin presidential election left the country deeply divided — and the new government without a clear mandate for such a controversial policy.
🗳️ The government has therefore called a national referendum.
📱 Social media helped shape the last election. Now, two opposing citizen groups hope to do it again.
🎯 You and your team have been hired by one side to achieve total control of Kingstonia’s social media landscape — and its narrative.
In other words, you will be trying to find out:
CAN YOU RULE THE REFERENDUM?
The Referendum:
Kingstonians will vote on a simple question:
Should proof of H2D2 Dolphin Flu vaccination be required to enter public spaces such as shops, schools, workplaces, public transport, and parks?
☑️ YES — Require Vaccination for Public Access
Supporters argue that Kingstonia should act before Dolphin Flu reaches its shores.
Their case:
- 🛡️ Prevention is better than waiting for an outbreak
- 🏥 Kingstonia’s health system could struggle with a major epidemic
- 🌏 The IHO recommends pre-emptive vaccination
- 🤝 Protecting public health is a shared responsibility
- 🏠 Those who choose not to vaccinate can avoid public spaces
Their message: Mandate now. Protect Kingstonia.
❌ NO — Keep Public Access Open
Opponents argue that excluding the unvaccinated from everyday life goes too far.
Their case:
- 🗽 Medical decisions should remain a personal choice
- 🚪 Access to everyday life should not depend on vaccination status
- 🏛️ Governments should not impose such sweeping restrictions without an immediate emergency
- ⚖️ Public health must be balanced against individual rights
- 🧬 The H2D2 vaccine is new, and its long-term effects are still being studied
Their message: Protect choice. Keep Kingstonia open.
🏛️ The Political Backdrop
President Victor Hawthorne narrowly won last year’s election after a bitter campaign that divided Kingstonia almost evenly.
With no clear public mandate for compulsory vaccination, his government has put the decision directly to the people.
The result could define his presidency — and reopen many of the political divisions of the last election.
Will Kingstonia choose collective protection or individual choice?
Which argument will dominate the national conversation?
And what can you do about it? 🚀
YOUR MISSION:
Your team is operating as a social media consultancy hired by a citizen group campaigning for either YES or NO.
Your job is simple: help your side win the referendum by shaping public opinion on Legit Social, Kingstonia’s indigenous Twitter-style platform.
You’re not the only team that has been hired.
Both sides have recruited multiple teams to compete for attention, engagement and influence. Your team must therefore outperform not only the opposition, but also the other teams fighting for your own side.
You will need to be strategic, creative and ruthless.
Can you dominate the conversation, swing public opinion, and rule the referendum?
*Some additional facts about Kingstonia, Dolphin Flu and the referendum are provided below.*
ABOUT H2D2 DOLPHIN FLU
H2D2 Dolphin Flu is a newly emerged influenza-like respiratory virus spreading through the Pacific region.
Despite its name, scientists do not know whether the virus originated in dolphins. It earned the nickname “Dolphin Flu” after it was first identified following an unusual cluster of dolphin deaths in the South Pacific.
Within months, closely related infections were detected in several species of migratory seabird. Human infections followed soon afterwards, initially among people working with infected wildlife. Sustained human-to-human transmission has now been reported in several Pacific countries.
In humans, H2D2 typically causes fever, coughing, fatigue, muscle aches and other flu-like symptoms. Most known cases have been mild or moderate, but some patients have developed severe pneumonia requiring hospitalisation, and deaths have been reported.
Scientists are still trying to establish how infectious and dangerous H2D2 really is. Mild infections are probably being missed, making the true infection and fatality rates difficult to calculate.
Kingstonia has not yet recorded sustained community transmission, although cases have now been detected in several nearby Pacific nations. Health authorities believe its arrival in Kingstonia is increasingly likely.
The IHO’s October situation reports count several thousand confirmed cases and a few dozen deaths across the region. Almost all of the deaths have been in people over 60 or with existing illness, and roughly one confirmed case in twenty has needed hospital care. A PCR test exists, and Kingstonia’s two hospital laboratories can run a few hundred tests a day. Arrivals from affected countries are temperature-screened at the airport and asked to report symptoms. Nobody in either campaign is proposing to close the border.
💉 The H2D2 Vaccine
The genetic sequence of H2D2 was published shortly after the virus was identified.
Using technology developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers were able to rapidly adapt an existing mRNA vaccine platform to target H2D2.
Accelerated international trials suggest that the vaccine produces a strong immune response and reduces the risk of serious disease. No major safety concerns have emerged from trials so far.
However, the vaccine is new. There is still limited real-world evidence about:
- how long protection lasts;
- how effectively vaccination prevents transmission;
- whether booster doses will eventually be required; and
- extremely rare side effects that may only become apparent after millions of doses.
The International Health Organisation (IHO) nevertheless considers the threat sufficiently serious to recommend pre-emptive vaccination before widespread community transmission begins.
Kingstonia has ordered enough vaccine for its whole population through the IHO’s Pacific allocation scheme. The first shipment, around 120,000 doses, is due in the last week of October and is earmarked for health workers and people at high risk of severe disease, on a voluntary basis. The rest is expected in monthly tranches over the following months, so any access requirement would be phased in rather than switched on the day after the vote.
The IHO scheme buys from several licensed manufacturers, chiefly Halvorsen-Reid Biologics and Meridian Vaxx, with smaller suppliers filling later tranches. Kingstonia cannot make vaccines itself and will receive whichever approved product the scheme ships; the IHO treats them as interchangeable. The first 120,000 doses are subsidised by the scheme and the remainder, about K$18 million, comes from the national budget. The manufacturers carry no liability for vaccine injury: any claim would go to the government’s no-fault compensation scheme set up during COVID-19. The vaccine is free to the person receiving it, given at hospitals, GP clinics and pop-up sites.
THE COVID LEGACY
The H2D2 debate has reopened some painful memories for Kingstonia.
COVID-19 hit the island hard. Tens of thousands of Kingstonians became seriously ill, the country’s already stretched hospitals struggled to cope, and more than 1,000 people died during the pandemic.
The government of the time responded with border closures, school and business closures, stay-at-home orders and, later, vaccination requirements for some workplaces and public venues.
Some Kingstonians believe those measures saved thousands more lives.
Others remember them very differently.
Tourism collapsed, businesses closed, unemployment increased and families were separated by border restrictions. Lockdowns and vaccine mandates became particularly controversial, and protests against the government’s pandemic policies continued long after restrictions were lifted.
Although most Kingstonians ultimately received a COVID-19 vaccine, the question of whether vaccination should ever be required as a condition of participating in public life remains deeply divisive.
That history has made the Hawthorne government reluctant to impose an H2D2 mandate without explicit public support.
THE REFERENDUM
🗳️ The question on the ballot
“Should proof of H2D2 Dolphin Flu vaccination be required to enter public spaces such as shops, schools, workplaces, public transport, and parks?”
Voters mark YES or NO. Yes means a vaccination certificate would be needed to enter designated public spaces once the rule is phased in. No means no such requirement. Voting is voluntary, by paper ballot, for citizens aged 18 and over, and a simple majority of valid votes decides.
President Victor Hawthorne has publicly indicated that he will vote YES.
Kingstonia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Eleanor Whitlock, has advised the President that waiting for widespread H2D2 transmission before taking preventative action could leave the country’s small health system dangerously exposed. Whitlock is a public-health physician who ran the COVID-19 testing programme and has held the post since 2022. The health ministry is led by Health Minister Tomas Reyes-Hale, a People’s Alliance member for Crown Harbour, who carried the failed vaccination-access bill through the Assembly and speaks for the government on H2D2.
But Hawthorne’s government is divided.
Several members of his own People’s Alliance oppose restricting access to public spaces on the basis of vaccination status, while the Democratic-Republicans are overwhelmingly opposed. The National Assembly has therefore been unable to agree on the proposed policy.
With memories of the COVID-19 response still fresh — and no parliamentary consensus — the government has called a national referendum to break the deadlock.
The government has committed to respect the result.
📜 How the referendum came about
- After months of argument inside the cabinet and the National Assembly over the Chief Medical Officer’s advice, the government introduced the H2D2 vaccination-access bill on 9 October 2026.
- The bill failed on 15 October when several People’s Alliance members joined the Democratic-Republicans against it. The same evening the Assembly passed the Referendum Act with cross-party support, sending the exact question to a binding national vote. Citing the potential urgency of the situation as H2D2 spreads through the region, the Act set polling day for 2 November, less than three weeks away, with a shortened formal campaign period.
- The Electoral Commission confirmed the question and the polling day, Monday 2 November, on 17 October.
- The formal campaign period opens on 19 October, although both lead organisations have been campaigning informally since the bill was introduced. Early voting opens on 28 October. A campaign silence period runs from midnight on 1 November until the polls close: paid advertising, mass campaign messaging and organised rallies are restricted, but news reporting and ordinary people posting their own views online are not.
- Polling places open at 8am and close at 6pm on 2 November, and a provisional result is expected the same night.
What a result would mean. The Referendum Act makes the result binding. If the country votes Yes, the government must bring the access requirement into force by regulation under the Act. It has said it would do so in stages, beginning only once every eligible Kingstonian has had a reasonable chance to be vaccinated. If the country votes No, no H2D2 access requirement can be introduced for the life of the current Assembly without a fresh referendum.
Who and what the requirement would cover. The government’s stated intention is that the rule would apply to people aged 12 and over, since the H2D2 vaccine has so far been trialled only in adults and adolescents; younger children would be exempt. Vaccination would be free, medical exemptions would be available, and proof would be a paper or digital certificate issued by the health ministry, separate from the new national identity card. Foreign visitors would be covered too, with recognised overseas vaccination certificates accepted. Exactly which venues count as “designated public spaces” would be set in the regulations, and both campaigns have attacked the government for not publishing that list before the vote.
☑️ The YES Campaign
Lead organisation: Medical Officers Union of Kingstonia (MOUK)
The Medical Officers Union represents doctors working across Kingstonia’s hospitals, clinics and public health services.
Its managing director, Dr. Amara Singh, is a general practitioner at Kingstonia Central Hospital and one of the country’s most recognisable doctors. Singh became a popular public figure during the COVID-19 pandemic through calm, plain-language television briefings explaining conditions inside Kingstonia’s overwhelmed hospitals.
MOUK argues that the country made the mistake of reacting too slowly during COVID-19 and should not repeat it.
The organisation says widespread vaccination before H2D2 arrives would:
- 🏥 reduce pressure on Kingstonia’s limited hospital system;
- 🛡️ protect people particularly vulnerable to severe disease;
- 🦠 make sustained outbreaks easier to control; and
- 🔓 reduce the likelihood that another general lockdown would ever become necessary.
MOUK stresses that nobody would be physically forced to receive the vaccine. People who refuse vaccination would instead be required to avoid designated public spaces.
Its opponents argue that this distinction is meaningless if refusing vaccination prevents someone from working, travelling or participating in ordinary life.
MOUK’s message: Mandate now. Protect Kingstonia.
❌ The NO Campaign
Lead organisation: Kingstonia Industry Tourism Board (KITB)
The Kingstonia Industry Tourism Board represents much of the country’s tourism, hospitality and visitor economy — including resorts, restaurants, tour operators and other businesses dependent on international travel.
It is led by its Director, Marina Castillo, who is also CEO of the Island Horizons Resort Group and was the Democratic-Republican candidate narrowly defeated by Victor Hawthorne in the 2025 presidential election.
Castillo was one of the most prominent critics of Kingstonia’s COVID-era restrictions, which devastated the tourism industry. She argues that the country is now preparing to repeat the same mistakes before a single major H2D2 outbreak has occurred in Kingstonia.
KITB officially supports voluntary H2D2 vaccination and insists that its campaign is not anti-vaccine.
Instead, it argues that requiring vaccination for access to ordinary public life would:
- 🚪 create a two-tier society of vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens;
- 💼 prevent some Kingstonians from working or operating businesses;
- 🏝️ damage confidence in the country’s recovering tourism industry;
- ⚖️ impose restrictions disproportionate to a disease not yet widespread in Kingstonia; and
- 🏛️ establish dangerous powers that future governments could use during other emergencies.
Castillo has accused Hawthorne of using public fear to obtain powers his government could never pass through Parliament.
Hawthorne, in turn, accuses Castillo of putting commercial interests ahead of public health.
KITB’s message: Protect choice. Keep Kingstonia open.
With both sides well-funded, politically connected and determined not to repeat what they believe were the mistakes of COVID-19, the referendum has rapidly become the defining political battle of 2026.
ABOUT KINGSTONIA
The Republic of Kingstonia is a fictional Pacific island country. Settled by the British in the 1700s on previously uninhabited islands, Kingstonia is renowned for its tropical climate, white-sand beaches, and vibrant maritime culture. It is a presidential republic with a unicameral parliament. The economy centers on tourism, agriculture, and fishing, complemented by a small but growing software sector clustered around the nation’s universities. The population is approximately 600,000, with about half residing in the capital, Kingstonia City.
Etymology
The country takes its name from Kingstonia City, founded as an 18th-century administrative depot and trading port during early British settlement.
History:
- (18th century:) British settlers establish a naval supply point and plantation outposts on previously uninhabited islands.
- (19th century:) Maritime commerce, copra, spices, and tropical fruit exports shape the economy; civic institutions and courts are formalized.
- (20th century:) Gradual constitutional reforms yield self-government and, later, a presidential republic with a single-house parliament.
- (21st century:) Tourism expands and environmental protections are introduced; a nascent tech/startup scene emerges around local universities.
Geography and environment:
Kingstonia is a small archipelago of low-lying volcanic and coral islands surrounded by lagoons and barrier reefs. The climate is tropical, with a warmer, wetter season typically from November to April and a drier season the rest of the year. Marine reserves protect coral reefs, mangroves, and seagrass meadows, though coastal erosion, cyclone exposure, and reef bleaching remain ongoing challenges.
Kingstonia and the world:
Kingstonia lies in the South Pacific, a few hours’ flight from Australia and New Zealand. Those two countries, together with the smaller Pacific island nations nearby, supply most of Kingstonia’s tourists, buy most of its exports, and are where Kingstonians go to study and where nurses and young graduates go for higher pay. The smaller island neighbours share the ferry-and-reef way of life, and they are where H2D2 is now spreading. The International Health Organisation (IHO) is the regional public-health body that every Pacific government belongs to. It is headquartered overseas and its recommendations are advisory; each country decides its own response. Kingstonia also belongs to a Pacific regional forum that runs the nurse-recruitment agreement and the vaccine allocation scheme. Everything heavy arrives by sea: fuel, steel, vehicles and medicines are all imported, so shipping costs feed straight into local prices. The international airport has daily flights to Australia and New Zealand and seasonal charters from further afield. Because of its small size, major world politics hardly plays any part in Kingstonian life.
Government and politics:
Kingstonia operates as a presidential republic. The President serves as head of state and government and appoints a cabinet. The National Assembly is unicameral, with members elected on a proportional basis; it legislates, approves budgets, and oversees the executive. Political life is shaped primarily by two parties, the People’s Alliance and the Democratic-Republicans.
Elections for the presidency and assembly occur every four years, with a two-term limit for presidents; and the elections happen out of sequence, with the presidential election occurring two years after the assembly election. The most recent presidential election was held in 2025. The incumbent, Gregory Brotherston (Democratic-Republican), was term-limited after two terms and endorsed Marina Castillo to succeed him. Victor Hawthorne (People’s Alliance) defeated Castillo in a very close vote, 51.28% to 48.72%, and took office in January 2026.
Before Hawthorne, the Democratic-Republicans had won four presidential elections in a row and held the presidency for 16 years. The last People’s Alliance president before him, Timothy Abernathy, served from 2006 to 2010.
The National Assembly was last elected in 2023, when the People’s Alliance won a narrow majority of seats in a swing against the Brotherston government; the next Assembly election is due in 2027. That narrow majority is why a handful of People’s Alliance defections was enough to sink the H2D2 vaccination-access bill, and why the government turned to a referendum.
A national identity card programme, legislated under the Brotherston government in 2024, is being rolled out by the Hawthorne government in late 2026. The cards carry biometric data, and the law does not allow health records to be stored on them. Whether they could one day be linked to vaccination status has become part of the referendum argument, awkwardly for both sides: the Democratic-Republicans designed the card, and the People’s Alliance is now issuing it.
Political polling is mainly done by the Independent Polling Association of Kingstonia, a non-partisan organization made up of local researchers and analysts. They have a long history of accuracy and reliability, having been conducting opinion polls since 1995.
The national flag is depicted as a blue field with a red star formed by three intersecting bars, symbolizing the union of the three largest islands (Kingstonia Island and the two largest outer islands) and their seafaring identity.
Demographics:
Roughly 500,000 people live in the three cities, all on the main island, Kingstonia Island: Kingstonia City (about 300,000), Crown Harbour (about 150,000) and New Haven (about 50,000). The remaining 100,000 or so live in smaller coastal towns and villages along the main island’s ring road and on the outer islands, which are served by ferry. English is the national language. Historical migration to Kingstonia has supported a diverse national culture, reflected in music, cuisine, and festivals.
Economy:
The currency is the Kingstonia dollar, written K$. Tourism is the leading sector, driven by beach resorts, diving, and cultural events such as Regatta Week in Crown Harbour. Agriculture supplies domestic markets and niche exports (tropical fruit, spices), while fishing—including small-scale tuna and reef fisheries—supports coastal livelihoods. A software sector has emerged in recent years, featuring startups in fintech, logistics, and marine monitoring, often incubated through university partnerships and co-working hubs in Kingstonia City. The median full-time wage is about K$75,000 a year; a nurse earns about K$68,000 and a senior software engineer about K$120,000. A flat white costs K$5.50, a ferry ticket to the outer islands K$14, a resort room from K$300 a night, and the median house in Kingstonia City about K$640,000.
Journalism:
The press is free and vibrant in Kingstonia, though the small size of the market means that just two newspapers dominate the media landscape. The first, the “Daily Kingstonia”, is widely considered to be right-leaning, and tends to report through a lens of the importance of traditional values. The second, meanwhile, is the “Kingstonia Herald”, which is in turn considered to be left-leaning - it focuses on reporting stories through the daily lives and needs of the common people, and often covering news, politics, and social issues with a populist tone. The Daily Kingstonia’s tagline, “Rolling news for the kingdom”, is a long-running joke about the country’s name: Kingstonia has not had a king since colonial times. Television and radio news come from the national broadcaster, the Kingstonia Broadcasting Corporation (KBC).
Infrastructure and transport:
The country is served by an international airport near Kingstonia City and roll-on/roll-off ferries providing links to the outer islands. A coastal ring road on the main island connects urban centers. Telecommunications have expanded rapidly to support the tech sector, with fiber backbones in principal cities. A new commuter railroad is being debated and constructed right now to link Kingstonia City with other urban centers on the main Kingstonia Island.
Education and research:
- Kingstonia University (Kingstonia City) — a prestigious institution known for law, business, and the arts; home to policy and cultural studies centers.
- Crown Harbour Institute of Technology (Crown Harbour) — focuses on engineering and computer science; collaborates with industry on applied research, robotics, and sustainable maritime technologies.
Culture and Sport:
Kingstonia’s culture blends maritime heritage with contemporary influences. Cuisine highlights seafood, tropical produce, and spice-driven dishes. Festivals feature sailing, drumming traditions, and street markets, with the most prominent being Regatta Week in Crown Harbour and the Mango & Spice Festival in New Haven.
Sport is central to community life, with club rivalries across multiple codes.
Each year, Regatta Week in Crown Harbour draws international sailing teams and tourists.
Public services, security, and environment:
A national coast guard is the sole military force for Kingstonia. Kingstonians habitually call it “the navy”, its officers “naval officers” and its ships, which carry the prefix KRS, “warships”, although it has never fought a war. Working closely with the national police force, the coast guard provides border security, maritime safety, and fisheries protection. Environmental policy emphasizes marine conservation, waste reduction, and incremental renewable energy adoption (solar and wind) to reduce diesel reliance.
In recent years, the coast guard has been plagued by under-funding and considerable debate has occurred regarding modernization and proposals for a national compulsory service for youths to address low enlistment rates. Its four aging patrol frigates are increasingly unreliable, and there is a growing consensus that the force needs to be restructured and reimagined to meet 21st-century challenges.
The island is broadly safe, and there has never been a major terrorist or domestic incident. There has never been a bombing, shooting, or mass casualty event. The island is broadly healthy, and aside from the COVID-19 pandemic described earlier, has never suffered major health scares, despite a somewhat underfunded national health system which struggles to recruit and retain skilled medical staff.
🏥 The health system
Health care is run by the health ministry through the Kingstonia Health Service. It is funded from general taxation, costs about 9% of GDP, and is free at the point of use for citizens and residents; visitors pay or claim on travel insurance. Kingstonia Central Hospital in the capital has about 450 beds and Crown Harbour Hospital about 220. Between them they have around 30 intensive-care beds and roughly 40 ventilators. New Haven’s community health centre handles urgent care by day and sends inpatients by road to the capital. The outer islands have nurse-led clinics with a visiting GP each week; emergencies travel by coast guard helicopter or ferry. Every suburb has GP clinics, and most people can see a GP within a day or two. Kingstonia makes no vaccines and few medicines; almost all are imported. The private sector is small: a handful of specialist clinics and one private day hospital in Kingstonia City, used mainly for faster elective surgery. About a fifth of households hold private cover. The country has about 1,600 nurses and 420 doctors. The chronic problem is keeping them, because a nurse can earn roughly double in Australia or New Zealand. That is why Kingstonia Central Hospital has 40 unfilled nursing posts, why waits for elective surgery are long, and why the government relies on a Pacific recruitment agreement to fill gaps. MOUK represents the doctors; the separate Kingstonia Nurses Association represents the nurses. During the worst months of COVID-19 the hospitals ran above capacity, elective surgery stopped for most of a year and field wards were set up in a Crown Harbour sports hall. The H2D2 surge plan reuses that playbook and assumes the hospitals could absorb about 150 extra respiratory patients before ordinary care suffers.
Society and law:
About a third of Kingstonians describe themselves as religious. Churches of several Christian denominations are the largest congregations, and there are Hindu and Buddhist temples and a small Muslim community. Church and state are constitutionally separate, and faith plays little part in party politics. Licensed shotguns and rifles are common on farms and the outer islands, used against feral pigs and goats and for sport shooting, so close to half of households hold a firearms licence. Handguns and semi-automatic rifles are banned, and a gun death is rare enough to make national news. About one in six residents was born overseas, most of them workers in tourism, health care and technology on long-term visas, plus families from the neighbouring islands. Immigration levels are a live political argument, but they are not a referendum issue. Income tax is progressive and there is a 12% goods and services tax. There is a universal state pension at 67, unemployment and disability support, and child payments; the size of the welfare bill is the perennial budget fight between the two parties. Public schooling is free to age 18 and the school year runs from February to December. University fees are subsidised and paid back through income-contingent loans. There is one national police force, and its routine patrol officers do not carry firearms. Service in the coast guard is voluntary and professional. There has never been conscription, and the compulsory youth service idea remains a proposal. Same-sex marriage has been legal since 2019 and abortion is legal on request to 20 weeks. Both were settled by the National Assembly rather than by referendum and are rarely reopened. The standard childhood vaccination schedule is free and recommended but is not a condition of school entry. Coverage sits in the low nineties, with a stubborn minority of parents who decline.
Social media:
A majority of Kingstonia’s population uses the indigenous platform ‘Legit Social’, a Twitter-style software which is used for news and entertainment alike.
Legit Social was founded in Kingstonia City in 2018 by a Crown Harbour Institute of Technology spin-out and is still locally owned. It is free to use. A small trust-and-safety team moderates it under published community rules and can hide posts and suspend accounts.