A very real looking newspaper
(Picture: TikTok @graysworld)People have no sense of irony – at least it appears that way, given the number of people who believed a TikTok spoof video claiming there are vaccine “bandits” injecting people against their will.
Posting on the platform, user Gray Fagan showed a clearly fake mock-up of a newspaper headlined “VACCINE BANDITS take over Los Angeles streets.”
He said the story was “the most crazy I’ve read in a long time” and claimed L.A was “under attack” from “vaccine bandits”
He said: “They walk up to you on the streets and ask you if you’re vaccinated and if you hesitate at all they inject you with a vaccine right on the spot.
“And then they throw a vaccine card at you right after they inject you,” he continued.
“They even leave it blank so you can fill in your name.”
He then said the “bandits”leave menacing notes outside people’s homes saying “see you in 2 weeks” ahead of the second dose of the vaccine.
“Why is noone else talking about this?” he asked.
But some people took his joke a little too seriously and thought that there really are vaccine bandits rolling around L.A.
One person said: “Im provaccine but this is actually terrifying. Violent and violating.”
Another said: “Honestly that’s terrifying. They don’t know people’s medical histories that’s dangerous and very invasive.”
Meanwhile, people on Twitter shared the story, despite it being completely ridiculous:
Why is no one talking about the “vaccine bandits”in LA rn ? These guys go up to random people and ask if they’ve had the vaccine if u hesitate they inject u on the spot very quickly , throw a COVID shot record card @ them &’ leaves a note saying they’ll be back for the 2nd dose
— Baby Ce🍁🍃 (@alicciawoods) August 10, 2021
Has anyone ever heard of the vaccine bandits from LA? And I bet not a lot of your have.
— Bryce Harper MVP (@SmittyFor6) August 10, 2021
Goodmorning, apparently in LA there’s a group called “VACCINE BANDITS” and they’re running around asking people if they’re vaccinated and if they say no they vaccinate them on the spot against their will and throw a card at them too 😂 even say see you in two weeks
— Frosty 💭 (@TacticalFrosty) August 10, 2021
Speaking to Daily Dot, Fagan set the record straight. He said the video was “intentionally ridiculous”.
“I don’t ever try to assert my videos as fact,” he said. “Each individual video is purposely designed to ‘look’ and ‘feel’ real, all the while growing progressively more and more outlandish, which there-in-lies the joke. If the viewer fails to do any further inspection from there, it’s on them if they actually believe it to be true!”
Meanwhile, those who do even the slightest bit of research by Googling the “article” will obviously find nothing, and the link to the “source” he provides leads to Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video on YouTube, which says it all.
If you want to scrutinise it yourself though, you can do so here.
