Judging by a rash of TikTok videos coming out along the same theme, anti-vaxxers on the platform and likely beyond sincerely believe that people who get the COVID-19 vaccine will soon die off and they’ll be the only ones left on the planet in some kind of vaccine-themed reverse-rapture situation.
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For whatever reason, they all seem to be using audio from the 2007 film The Transformers that features Optimus Prime telling his fellow surviving space robots that he’s out there and waiting for them.
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“I am Optimus Prime,” says the voiceover, “and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars. We are here. We are waiting.”
Videos like these, often including tags such as “#unvaccinatedamerican,” have proliferated enough to make it into a VICE report featuring screenshots from other videos using the same dramatics. All contain captions talking about their “message to the remaining unvaccinated survivors” and “TO ALL MY UNVACCINATED AMERICANS THAT ARE LEFT OUT THERE. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.”
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So far, there have been zero fatalities attributed to the COVID-19 vaccine. Though there have been people who have died in the weeks and months after receiving it, and people like Tucker Carlson will want you to assume there is a connection, none of those deaths appear to have been the result of the vaccine but of old age or unrelated health issues.
Of course, facts can’t penetrate the hard metal exterior of the conspiracy theory Autobots, and so they keep making their dramatic poses to the tune of 2007-era Linkin Park.
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Most of the videos feature people in increasingly ridiculous outfits facing away from the camera and standing in dramatic poses, either with hands on hips or arms crossed, looking out into the distance. Or the far fence of their backyard. Following the “original sound” link also reveals similar videos for people like “any remaining Republicans” and “all straight people left.”
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While some of these users may simply be bragging to their fellow anti-vaxxers about not getting the COVID vaccine, as 30 percent of Americans have already said they wouldn’t, others use terms like “survivors” and explicitly state that the vaccinated will die in three years, at best.
It’s also generally well-known that some of the deepest anti-vaccine conspiracy theories claim that the shot is deadly and meant to cull the population for some purpose we can’t pretend to understand.
Regardless, if their expectation is to be alone for the rest of their lives except for the other anti-vaxxers they chat with online, we all hope that becomes as true as possible for them.
h/t VICE
*First Published: May 18, 2021, 11:39 am
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