I’m sorry, what? nytimes.com/2021/08/06/nyr…
The striking thing about this anecdote is that it's not one person's crazy remark, but sounds like something that's been spreading around widely in some corners of the Internet. Which it turns out it has. This post has tens of thousands of shares, with mostly serious comments
Well now I'm down this rabbit hole. "I am Legend" anti-vax references and content also quite popular on pro-Trump and QAnon forums, which seeps over to Facebook
From this great @ddiamond story in May on Covid vaccine skeptics who changed their minds: “I love that movie, for all kinds of reasons. But that was kind of scary. Don't want to be a zombie." washingtonpost.com/health/2021/05…
😅
Well, the screenwriter of “I Am Legend” has weighed in so that should settle it (…)
Spare a thought for the hard-working fact-checkers who have been refuting this for months
From this @MarkianHawryluk story from Denver: “'I was completely against it,' the 40-year-old movie buff said, referencing “I Am Legend” and “Children of Men,” in which humanity is in jeopardy, as examples of what could go wrong." denverpost.com/2021/07/29/den…
Another reference in @JMPoff's conversations with vaccine skeptics: "If the vaccine turned out to be like the one from I Am Legend, I’d rather be the vampire than the one running from the vampire. I got my shots a few days after that occurred to me." buzzfeed.com/jonmichaelpoff…
Fwiw, it's easy to make fun of people seeming to believe vaccines will turn them into zombies, but(almost)none of them do.
The real scary part is the information echo chambers they live in, where they use way more "plausible" conspiracies & misinfo to support a parallel reality
Do you know of anyone profiting off Covid vaccine fears and conspiracies (lawyers, anti-vax "health" experts, local businesses, social media influencers, etc) - I want to hear from you. DMs are open and you can email me at vera.bergengruen@time.com.
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