Anti-vaxxers think God destroyed a Pfizer facility with a tornado
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Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists are celebrating a tornado that destroyed a Pfizer manufacturing plant, attributing the disaster to God’s justice.
A tornado severely damaged the Rocky Mount, North Carolina facility on Wednesday. The plant produces approximately a quarter of the sterile injectables used in the US.
The 150mph winds crushed the walls of the facility, leaving the steel roof a crumpled pile of wreckage.
More than 50,000 pallets of product — including vials, IV bags, and anesthesia bottles — were strewn about the site. No one was seriously injured, according to the Daily Dot.
Conservative commenters deluded by conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 vaccine celebrated the destruction on social media.
A writer for The Blaze, Daniel Horowitz, suggested that “God has a sense of humor” in one tweet, sharing the comment alongside news footage of the wreckage.
Another user, Nick Searcy, said the “tornado saved lives.”
And anonymous conservative user “@wethepeople0825” called the tornado an “act of God,” before saying that “he moves in mysterious ways.”
Perhaps most prominent among the throng of destruction-praising right wing voices was Ron Watkins, a failed Arizona congressional candidate and the man some people believe to be the shadowy “Q” figure that sparked the QAnon conspiracy movement.
He said the tornado “feels like Genesis 19:24,” citing a Biblical passage discussing God’s judgement on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Attributing disasters to God’s wrath is nothing new for evangelical conservatives; according to Pew Research, in 1987 some 60 per cent of white evangelicals considered Aids God’s punishment on gay men. Pat Robertson, who died earlier this year, said Hurricane Katrina was punishment for Americans who recieved abortions. And more recently, Rick Wiles, another conservative evangelical pastor, called coronavirus a “death angel” sent by God to punish us for our sins.
“God is about to purge a lot of sin off of this planet,” he said at the time.
While many of the comments solely saw the event as a judgement from God, others rejected that theory and dug further down into the unreality rabbit hole, claiming the tornado was actually a man-made event devised by Pfizer.
“That’s not an Act of God … it’s a man-made disaster,” a user named Megan theorised. “If you think the most ruthless company on the planet isn’t capable of destroying evidence — you’re living in lego land!”
In fact, the plant at Rocky Mount does not produce or store vaccines, according to the Associated Press.
This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Independent can be found here.
