'I Am Legend' Trends After Anti-vaxxer Cites It As Her Reason For Not Getting Vaccinated

As Americans work to bring themselves back to some semblance of pre-COVID-19 normalcy, many find themselves frustrated by the contingent of the country that refuses to get vaccinated due to belief in various conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine. While these conspiracies have been aggravating for their tenuous basis in fact and reality, one woman's reason for not getting vaccinated trended online for being literally not based in reality.

A recent New York Times article detailed the reasoning of some vaccine holdouts in the Bronx, and one woman cited the 2007 zombie apocalypse film I Am Legend.

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.

After the article was posted, I Am Legend trended on Twitter as people remarked upon the apparent hopelessness of convincing the unvaccinated to get the vaccine.

“I’ve done my own research” = “I misremembered the plot of I Am Legend” https://t.co/ReBk3QXgAb

— Joe Berkowitz (@JoeBerkowitz) August 9, 2021

It's really unfortunate how many people misunderstood the message of the famed public health documentary, I Am Legend. https://t.co/cgXPgNQ8Jt

— Delia Harrington (@DeliaMary) August 9, 2021

It’s insane to base your vaccine skepticism on the movie I Am Legend, but even if you tried, it was the virus itself that caused the movie’s pandemic, not a vaccine

Also, the hero of the movie is literally a virologist who found a cure--like the experts anti-vaxxers attack. https://t.co/tkxIsW6Dv0

— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) August 9, 2021

People using I Am Legend as an excuse not to get vaccinated. pic.twitter.com/nTOUkjUTxz

— gabriel (@gvbreal) August 9, 2021

We. Are. All. Going. To. Die.

Sooner. Than. We. Should. https://t.co/DqMKTkSxbr

— Marc Bernardin (@marcbernardin) August 9, 2021

Even I Am Legend's screenwriter chimed in exasperatedly, tweeting, "Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real."

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

— Akiva Goldsman (@AkivaGoldsman) August 9, 2021

The conspiracy that the plot of I Am Legend was set in motion by a vaccine seems to be a common talking point among QAnon and "pro-Trump" forums, according to TIME correspondent Vera Bergen.

Well now I'm down this rabbit hole. "I am Legend" anti-vax references and content also quite popular on pro-Trump and QAnon forums, which seeps over to Facebook pic.twitter.com/Z4ydTYtx6M

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) August 9, 2021

It's worth noting that Will Smith's character in I Am Legend was a scientist who spent the film in isolation working on a cure for the virus that turned humans into zombies.