You Don't Need To Worry About The Vaccine

Submission 7,854

Part of a series on COVID-19 Pandemic. [View Related Entries]

For up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 coronavirus, including prevention and treatment, please visit CDC.gov.

About

You Don't Need to Worry About the Vaccine is a phrasal template used to mock concerns some may have about the COVID-19 vaccine. The meme states that other activities may be more detrimental to one's health or privacy than the vaccination (similar to Do Not Worry About Biden's Tax Plan). The template reads:

If you X, then you don't need to worry about the vaccine.

Origin

On December 3rd, 2020, Twitter^[1] user @myeshachou tweeted, "if your social security number is saved in your notes app, you do not need to worry about the vaccine putting a chip in you." This is the earliest known usage of the meme and references baseless conspiracy theories that the vaccination process is a plan by Bill Gates to track human beings. The tweet received more than 424,000 likes and 41,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Precursor

On November 2nd, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @cocoxlong tweeted, "If your pillow looks like this, DO NOT worry about Biden's tax plan." Along with the caption, @cocoxlong posted a picture of a stained and well-worn pillow. The tweet received more than 77,000 likes and 16,000 retweets in less than two days (shown below).

Spread

On December 4th, 2020, a screenshot of the tweet^[3] and an example of the conversation happening in the Twitter thread spread on Twitter. The tweet received more than 166,000 likes and 15,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below).

Over the next few weeks, the meme continued to thread, with several tweets receiving more than 70,000 likes. For example, On December 7th, Twitter^[4] user @MillyTamarez tweeted, "If you ate public school lunch in america, don't worry about what's in the vaccine." The tweet received more than 70,000 likes 5,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, left). On December 11th, comedian Jaboukie Young-White tweeted,^[5] "if you ever used a straight man’s towel, don’t worry about what’s in the vaccine." The tweet received more than 157,000 likes and 14,000 retweets in less than one week (shown below, right).

Several media outlets covered the meme, including Memebase,^[6] eBaum's World, ^[7] BuzzFeed ^[8] and more.