[imagesource: Warner Brothers]

I Am Legend is one of those movies that gets plenty of screentime across the DStv movie channels.

It’s easy watching, and makes for decent background noise while you scroll aimlessly through your phone judging people you once went to school with for their social media posts.

It’s also become a meme of sorts in the anti-vaxxer community about the supposed dangers of vaccines, with a New York Times article featuring a business struggling to get its employees vaccinated highlighting why this is problematic:

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. But the plague that turned people into zombies in the movie was caused by a genetically reprogrammed virus, not by a vaccine.

The I Am Legend vaccine ‘memes’ have been doing the rounds since at least January of this year.

This tweet has in excess of 50 000 retweets and quote tweets, and a quick search shows there are hundreds of variations of the same message.

Clearly, it’s struck a nerve with people, because here’s another quote from a Washington Post story on vaccine hesitancy back in May:

Simmons, a Democrat, told The Post that she had been haunted by a 2007 horror movie, “I Am Legend,” which starred actor Will Smith.

That film depicts a botched cancer cure that kills most people and transforms the survivors into monsters — and Simmons said the image ran through her head last year as she heard about the rapid development of the coronavirus vaccines.

“I love that movie, for all kinds of reasons. But that was kind of scary. Don’t want to be a zombie,” Simmons said.

Nobody does.

I also don’t want to end up in hospital, or worse, with my family speaking of deep regret.

One more time – in the movie, the vampires were caused by a genetically modified virus called the Krippin Virus that was meant to be a cure for cancer, and not a vaccine.

Eventually, the I Am Legend nonsense reached 59-year-old Akiva Goldsman, who co-wrote the movie screenplay based on a 1954 novel of the same name.

His message was clear:

Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real.

— Akiva Goldsman (@AkivaGoldsman) August 9, 2021

We hear you, Akiva.

The movie is based in 2012, by the way.

It’s one thing to be hesitant of getting vaccinated, and it remains a personal choice at this stage, but it’s quite another to actively participate in the spreading of harmful misinformation that could ultimately end with somebody’s death.

“I just thought it was interesting” really isn’t a valid excuse for not bothering to do any research at all.

[sources:nytimes&washpost]