Okay, if you didn’t believe us when we wrote about it yesterday, we’re once again here to say the COVID-19 vaccine will not turn you into a zombie. Promise. And hey, if that’s not enough, this time we’ve got the words of one of I Am Legend’s co-writers to back us up.
Following the circulation of an New York Times article noting the growing number of anti-vaxxers citing I Am Legend as a reason to be skeptical of the vaccine, I Am Legend co-writer Akiva Goldsman took to Twitter to shut down the dangerous (and absurdly stupid) misinformation. In response to a conversation about the article, Goldsman offered a brief and blunt response:
Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real.
— Akiva Goldsman (@AkivaGoldsman) August 9, 2021
On top of I Am Legend being indisputably “Not. Real,” it’s also worth noting the film Goldsman and fellow co-writer Mark Protosevich wrote and adapted from Richard Matheson novel of the same name isn’t even about a mutated vaccine. In I Am Legend, the zombie apocalypse is brought on when a pathologist, portrayed by Will Smith, attempts to create a cure for cancer by re-engineering the measles virus, a fact the New York Times even mentioned in the aforementioned article:
One employee said she was concerned because she thought a vaccine had caused the characters in the film “I Am Legend” to turn into zombies. People opposed to vaccines have circulated that claim about the movie’s plot widely on social media. But the plague that turned people into zombies in the movie was caused by a genetically reprogrammed virus, not by a vaccine.
Listen, we know we’re in the middle of a pandemic and there’s a lot to be scared about, but zombie apocalypses should be about forty spots down on your list and well after COVID-19 itself. Since last February, over 600,000 Americans have died from the virus and its complications. As of right now, 166.7 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC, and not but one of them has turned into a zombie. Once again, it’s a movie, folks. Please get vaccinated.