How do I use the following JQuery plugin in React app?

I want to use the following JQuery plugin as part of my React app, and haven’t had success in doing so: http://viima.github.io/jquery-comments/#link-3. This is a comments plugin that creates threads/replies.

Currently, I’ve tried to integrate it as follows, but to no avail:

import React, { Component } from "react";
import $ from "jquery";
import "./jquery-comments.css";
import "./jquery-comments";

class Comments extends Component {
  componentDidMount() {
    this.$el = $("#comments-container");
    this.$el.comments({
      profilePictureURL:
        "https://viima-app.s3.amazonaws.com/media/public/defaults/user-icon.png",
      getComments: function (success, error) {
        var commentsArray = [
          {
            id: 1,
            created: "2015-10-01",
            content: "Lorem ipsum dolort sit amet",
            fullname: "Simon Powell",
            upvote_count: 2,
            user_has_upvoted: false,
          },
        ];
        success(commentsArray);
      },
    });
  }

  render() {
    return <div ref={(el) => (this.el = el)}></div>;
  }
}

export default Comments;