Anti-Vaxxers Are Using the Plot of “I Am Legend” to Justify Their Hesitancy to Getting the Covid-19 Vaccine; Screenwriter Reminds Them it’s Just a Movie

Akiva Goldsman, the screenwriter and executive producer of the 2007 film I Am Legend, has offered a direct rebuttal to those who have hijacked the film’s narrative to promote false conspiracy claims that the COVID-19 vaccine will transform you into a zombie.

Much of this ‘conspiracy’ has been making its way across, however, Goldsman caught wind of it after Vera Bergengruen, Time’s Washington, D.C. political correspondent, shared a screenshot from a New York Times piece that focused on NYC employees’ skepticism about getting the vaccine.

“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,” the screenshot read. “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.”

“Oh. My. God. It’s a movie. I made that up. It’s. Not. Real,” Goldsman replied on Twitter.

Because we must state the obvious, the movie’s narrative has nothing to do with vaccinations causing the zombie outbreak. The plot revolves around individuals turning into zombies after being infected with a cancer-curing genetically re-engineered measles virus.

The COVID-19 vaccine isn’t derived from a previous virus in any way. The primary goal of the mRNA vaccine, according to the CDC, is to train our cells how to generate a spike protein, which aids the immune system in detecting when the coronavirus has entered our bodies and triggering an immunological response that produces antibodies to fight infection.

mRNA vaccines are relatively new to the public, but researchers have been working on them for a long time in response to previously known viruses like Rabies and Zika, among others. The COVID-19 spike protein was unknown when the pandemic began, so scientists waited until they had the information they needed to develop a vaccine.

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

— Akiva Goldsman (@AkivaGoldsman) August 9, 2021

I’m sorry, what? https://t.co/KGCWsuqDtp pic.twitter.com/CF0qqqCOoG

— Vera Bergengruen (@VeraMBergen) August 9, 2021