One of the screenwriters of the 2007 movie I Am Legend has taken to Twitter to remind anti-vaxxers that his film is not, in fact, a COVID documentary.
I Am Legend has become a bit of a meme among anti-vaxxers in recent months, with people claiming the movie plot about a virus being developed to cure cancer, only to wipe out most of mankind, foreshadows what they think might happen with COVID vaccines. It goes without saying that it’s a bullshit theory for multiple reasons.
This particular conspiracy theory was thrust into the spotlight last week in a New York Times article about vaccine hesitancy, which referred to one person who thought “a vaccine had caused the characters in the film I Am Legend to turn into zombies.”
Now, the film’s co-screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has directly responded to the article on Twitter in the most blunt way possible.
“Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real,” he wrote.
Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real.
— Akiva Goldsman (@AkivaGoldsman) August 9, 2021
It should go without saying… right?
There’s also a rumour going around that the film was set in 2021, when it’s quite obviously set in 2012.
The difference between I Am Legend and the coronavirus pandemic (aside from one being fact and one being literal science fiction) is that the people in I Am Legend were given a reprogrammed measles virus in order to cure cancer, and that’s what ended up turning almost everyone into zombies.
A vaccine is not a fucking reprogrammed measles virus. It doesn’t mutate, it doesn’t spread, and hypothetical side effects do not include zombification. It simply teaches your body how to fight the novel coronavirus.
If a zombie apocalypse movie is influencing your decision to take a vaccine during a deadly global pandemic, you probably need to reassess how you got to that point.
All adult Aussies (yep, even if those of us under 40) are currently able to get the safe and effective AstraZeneca vaccine through a GP. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor to see if it’s right for you.
Alternatively, you can triple-check to see if you’re eligible for the Pfizer vaccine here.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
