Anti-vaxxers are using a Will Smith movie to convince people that COVID vaccines will turn them into zombies

Anti-vaccine activists have come up with a new way to discourage people from getting vaccinated against the novel coronavirus: By spreading false information about the plot of the Will Smith movie "I Am Legend."

The New York Times reports that New York-based optical business Metro Optics Eyewear has successfully gotten 90 percent of its staff to get vaccinated against COVID-19, although its owner and managers had to battle against misinformation spread by anti-vaxxers the whole time.

Among the stranger anti-vaccine explanations they encountered was from a woman who feared that it would turn her into a zombie.

"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 Times reports. "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."

Brett Schumacher, the company's general manager, tells the Times that he's had to walk on "eggshells" correcting people about misinformation they've picked up on social media because people get very defensive if they find out they've been fooled.

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