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Analysis
Podcaster Joe Rogan shared a screenshot of a news article to his Instagram account that insinuated scientists were blaming eggs for blood clots that had actually been caused by the COVID vaccine. But the article is fake.
In a post to his more than 16.2 million followers on Wednesday, Rogan highlighted an article with the headline, “Scientists Warn Eggs Are Causing Thousands of People to ‘Suddenly’ Form Blood Clots.”
“This is either black belt level trolling, or the AI has gone sentient and it’s starting to fuck with us,” Rogan said.
Users quickly flooded the comments with anti-vaccine remarks, arguing that they had been vindicated for warning that the vaccines were dangerous.
“People are suddenly forming blood clots since the vaccine for covid-19 and now they need something to blame…” one user wrote.
Others pointed the finger at the pharmaceutical company Pfizer and quipped about the “new MRNA eggs.”
The screenshot shared by Rogan, however, is from a fake news website known as “News Punch.” An analysis by BuzzFeed News found that News Punch was the second-largest source of viral fake stories on Facebook in 2017.
Fabricated articles from News Punch are successful given that they often combine some truthful information with falsehoods that supports readers’ biases. Studies have in fact attempted to link eggs to blood clots before. One such study was reported on by CBS News in 2017, long before COVID or the vaccine had surfaced.
Yet even with such claims, which have also been refuted by other studies, at no point has any scientist claimed that thousands of people are dropping dead “suddenly” due to eggs.
Nevertheless, the false claims made in the article have now become gospel among anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists. Screenshots of the article are also going viral on TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Despite simple research proving that the article is false, conservatives appear to be blissfully unaware.
Why it matters
The emergence of yet another false claim regarding COVID vaccines is concerning given how many high-profile figures are spreading it, especially Joe Rogan given his massive audience.
The virality of the fake article also once again highlights how people are even less likely to fact check a claim so long as it conforms to their preconceived notions.
