The mysterious illness of a Texas woman has become a weapon of anti-vaccination workers around the world

Texas resident Patricia suffers from a skin disease, but a misunderstanding as to what might have caused it has set off a chain of events that has turned her leg into a major argument for vaccine opponents. Writes about it with the BBC.

Photo: Shutterstock

The photo shows her legs with purple and red ulcers, swelling and pus.

“This is probably a vaccine trial participant,” the text under the photo reads.

A day later, this was mentioned thousands of times on Instagram and Facebook. The image went viral on Twitter as well.

“Look, they are trying to intentionally harm us with the vaccine,” one tweet said.

This leg belongs to Patricia, a 30-year-old woman living in Texas. And it's true - she was indeed a participant in the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine trial.

But it is also true that Patricia never received the real vaccine. Medical evidence suggests she received a placebo, a small injection of salt water. This is a common practice in studies to compare groups receiving a drug or vaccine with those receiving a placebo.

Her illness had nothing to do with the vaccine. But that did not stop activists from distorting her story. In addition to the physical pain caused by the illness, Patricia received a wave of online harassment.

From a misunderstanding in a meme

Patricia says that her illness began in late October, when she went for a walk with her husband and little daughter. She began to feel pain in her left leg. The husband suggested that she could rub her shoes.

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When she returned home, she discovered painful swelling on her sole. A large bubble appeared - it was unlikely that a shoe could rub it. It was so big that she had to use one of her daughter's diapers to bandage her leg.

When blisters appeared on the sole of her other foot and it became difficult for her to walk, she went to the doctor, who cited a number of possible reasons.

One of them was erythema fixa, a bad skin reaction to medications.

She immediately thought about the vaccine trial she was participating in at the time. She received a second injection five days before the blisters appeared.

After visiting the doctor, Patricia spoke to a relative who was so concerned that she created a GoFundMe page to raise money for medical bills, as Patricia was already having problems paying for her back treatment. Now she had to quit her job due to leg problems.

The GoFundMe page did not mention other possible causes of the disease that the doctor spoke of and made a link between the blisters and the vaccine trial. The text reads: "Patricia ... recently volunteered for a COVID-19 vaccine research and has a severe adverse reaction."

Patricia had no idea that this information would be used on the Internet.

How the post went viral

The story spread quickly. After it was published by a popular antivaccinator, the story was picked up by others, notably an apocalyptic evangelical Christian site that promotes conspiracy theories about vaccines, a pandemic, and the US election.

The site has posted it along with Bible passages that say that "the blisters strongly resemble the" grievous wounds "described in Revelation."

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After that, it began to be distributed to religious and anti-vaccination groups on Facebook around the world in different languages.

Placebo effect

Following the spread of the photo, Pfizer and Patricia's doctors began to analyze her participation in the vaccine trial.

Participants are usually not told whether they are receiving the vaccine or a placebo—this information is only revealed to researchers after the study is completed so as not to influence the results.

But Patricia says through unusual circumstances, researchers and the pharmaceutical company told her that she was receiving a placebo with salt water, not a trial vaccine.

The woman realized that her GoFundMe page caused a lot of problems, although it was thought with a good purpose.

“I have to accept a certain amount of guilt for putting my story out there,” she says. - This is social networks. When you post something, it can be picked up and go viral. My illness had nothing to do with the vaccine. It's my fault. People make mistakes."

Her doctor continues to search for the true cause of the disease.

The spread continues

However, Patricia's confession did not stop the spread of false information.

Within a week, Patricia's story had already hit the Twitter channels of Britons with a large audience, who spread conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. And then to groups on Facebook - both in the USA and in the UK.

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Patricia began to receive requests from pseudoscientific bloggers to discuss her story on their YouTube channels.

Harassment began on social networks. According to her, people called her an idiot, a drug addict, a fraudster, a dubious person and the like.

The anti-vaccinators sent her angry messages that she should never have participated in the trial. At the same time, others accused her of deliberately fueling disinformation.

Patricia insists that she was not going to deliberately deceive anyone. Through a barrage of messages, she deleted her social media profiles and says she is particularly upset about the behavior of the anti-vaccinators.

“The fact that anti-vaxxers are using this to fuel their theories is outrageous,” she says.

Collecting money

Patricia still has medical bills to pay. With the help of her family, the GoFundMe page — which the site had removed due to misinformation — was brought back in edited form.

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This time it says: "Patricia still suffers from skin disease on her legs, but the cause is not yet clear."

GoFundMe offered to return the money to anyone who donated it under the false impression that the vaccine caused the disease. Now the page has collected more than $ 5000.

Patricia's story is just one of many such examples. Activists with radical views find stories that seem to support them and quickly begin spreading unverified information online.

For her part, Patricia just wants it to be over. She hopes that her doctor will be able to identify the cause of the disease and she will be able to return to work soon.

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