About

Vaxmaxxing, sometimes shortened to Vaxmax, refers to memes about consistently and willingly injecting yourself with vaccines, particularly experimental ones, over a lengthy period of time in order to experience the maximum effects or experimental and unknown effects of the vaccine. Vaxmaxxing is often used in reference to the COVID-19 vaccines because of their lack of FDA approval until late August 2021. It is also defined as someone who takes all the available COVID-19 vaccines and continues to get vaccines when advised.

Origin

On April 9th, 2021, an anonymous user of 4chan's^[1] /pol/ board posted a reply to a thread by another anon saying they'll never get the COVID-19 vaccine, writing a story about how they stole 4,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and they've been injecting it for four months into the same arm. They describe spending some days paralyzed in pain, but that the side effects are now leaving and they feel powerful because of the vaccines. Attached to the post is an image of a Super Tyrant from Resident Evil 2, a muscular zombie-like enemy with one massive arm (shown below, click to expand).

I was able to intercept an entire pallet of Pfizers first vaccine shipment. 4000 doses at 2 shots per dose. I've got it stored in a chest freezer in my garage. Ive been injecting myself every day, sometimes multiple times a day if I can stand it. The symptoms were terrible for the first few weeks. There were times I was completely paralyzed with pain, contorted like the Edvard munch painting and frozen in agony for hours. I became stronger and some of the worst symptoms subsided over time. I've been vaxmaxxing for almost 4 months now and I feel as though I'm becoming something greater than human now. I will continue to administer the injections into the same arm as long as possible. I'm increasing the dosages as much as I can stand and will maintain my journal.

Spread

The post became a copypasta on 4chan^[2][3] over the following months, with users posting it alongside the Super Tyrant image or other images meant to show the effects of vaxmaxxing. On April 15th, 2021, the term was defined by Urban Dictionary^[5] user Thor, but not that one as "The continued action of injecting oneself with Vaccinations, specifically experimental and pre-FDA approved variants."

On June 8th, Redditor u/bitchyfuxkjngbltch34 posted an image to /r/redscarepod^[6] with the text, "DON'T TALK TO ME UNLESS YOU'RE GIGAVAXXED," showing an image of a muscular man shooting a vaccine into his arm surrounded by vaccine brands (shown below).

On July 6th, Twitter^[7] user @atdanwhite posted an image of a COVID-19 vaccination card filled in showing the user got 15 shots with the post text: "Finally got my fifteenth Pfizer and I can’t even describe how excited I am to grab a drink with friends!" The image gained over 78,000 likes and 8,000 retweets in a month (shown below, left). On July 11th, Instagram^[8] user @salad.snake posted a version of the image with on-image text reading, "just got my 15th dose we outside," gaining over 88,200 likes in a month (shown below, right).

On July 8th, an AR15.com^[4] user made a forum post discussing vaxmaxxing, receiving numerous replies making fun of people who get all the COVID-10 vaccines.

On August 23rd, the Pfizer vaccine was approved by the FDA.^[9]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References