In each edition of web_crawlr we have exclusive original content every day. On Mondays our Tech Reporter Mikael Thalen debunks the most wild conspiracy theories swirling around the web in his “One Dumb Conspiracy” column. If you want to read columns like this before everyone else, subscribe to web_crawlr to get your daily scoop of internet culture delivered straight to your inbox.
If you’ve received the vaccine and are reading this before October 4, you still have time. Time for what you ask? To enjoy your last hours as a human. At least that’s what anti-vaxxers believe.
An absurd conspiracy theory circulating on social media claims that every vaccinated individual on the planet will transform into a zombie on October 4. Luckily for those inoculated against COVID-19, however, the claim is utter nonsense.
In a video originally posted to Instagram, a user alleges that all COVID shots were secretly booby-trapped with the Marburg virus. The Marburg virus causes a severe hemorrhagic fever that has historically killed 70 percent of those infected.
The user continues by stating that the virus will be activated when three one-minute long 18 gigahertz pulse waves are sent out from, you guessed it, 5G cell towers.
“The government has been preparing for this for years now and will be released in October of 2023,” the user says.
And what proof does this conspiracy theorist provide? Claims from a purported attorney named Jeffrey Prather. A quick glance at Prather’s website shows your typical QAnon-style content, with podcast episodes containing titles such as “BREAKING: CHINA SATELLITES FIRED MAUI!” At least they aren’t blaming Jewish lasers, for once.
The Instagram video continues with footage of Prather himself detailing the imagined, devious plan to zombify the masses for some unexplained reason. But it’s not just Marburg in the shots. The dastardly Deep State also put some Ebola in there for good measure too, according to Prather.
Only it’s not the Marburg virus or Ebola that will turn you into a zombie. Prather concludes by stating that those who survive the initial onslaught will have certain genes deleted from their body, causing them to enter into a zombie-like state.
In other words, it’s going to be a rough week for the billions of people who have received a COVID-19 shot. Luckily, such claims have been made countless times and always fail to come to fruition. If conspiracy theorists were correct, the entire vaccinated population would have died 15 times over by now. It’s safe to say no one will become a zombie this week.
Why it matters
Despite being several years out from the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, none of the doomsday predictions made by conspiracy theorists have come true. Yet that hasn’t slowed down the nonsensical theories.
Many conspiracy theorists choose to double down when proven wrong. That’s why anti-vaccine content remains so prevalent. When no one becomes a zombie, expect anti-vaxxers to move the goalpost once again.
