Coronavirus truthers have a new boogeyman.
A far-right Facebook group that spans the U.K. and the U.S. recently erupted in alarm when a user posted, “There are people donating blood after being shot up with the covid crap. This terrifies me.” A wave of comments followed, all reflecting various degrees of deluded, conspiratorial thinking about shots that we know to be safe and effective.
“Isn’t there a rule not to??” one intoned. “Are people that stupid to donate blood after getting a shot?”
“Well, I will never get a blood transfusion ever now,” another declared. “Their blood has the death shot in it! No thank you!”
It took about an hour for a swastika to crop up. Covered partially by a face mask, the image was captioned, “It’s for your safety.”
Nathan Savoy, a 34-year-old from Houston, responded on a separate thread in the same group: “In the future ONLY the vaccinated will be able to give blood. Think I am joking? Just watch.”
While Savoy later told The Daily Beast his “comment was meant to be tongue-in-cheek,” he said he was concerned about receiving a blood transfusion from someone who had received the vaccine. “We know the health risk of COVID pretty well now,” he said. “We don’t know those from the vaccine. It might be minimal. However, unknowns rank higher in my risk ranking.”
Savoy also mentioned he “does not plan on getting any of the COVID treatments.”
While there are typically deferral periods for donating blood after receiving a vaccination for diseases like rubella, measles, and chicken pox, in most cases there is no such period for people who received the COVID-19 vaccine as long as they are feeling well. As a precaution when donating, potential donors must provide their vaccine manufacturer’s name. If they cannot, they are instructed to wait two weeks before donating.
Regardless, anti-vaxxers believe without evidence that the lack of a deferral period—and in some more extreme cases, allowing the vaccinated to donate blood at all—is a backdoor to genetic modification. In what appears to be the latest offshoot of the Great Reset conspiracy theory, which holds that global elites are manipulating the pandemic for twisted, totalitarian ends, these extremists claim vaccinated people donating blood might lead to the downfall of civilization as we know it.
I just can’t…