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  • Now, as people begin receiving vaccines in the UK, social media is alive with conspiracy theories about the potential risks that a coronavirus vaccine could pose.

  • Well, these posts are worlds away from legitimate questions being asked online and reports of side effects and allergic reactions.

  • The BCS investigated how one woman's foot became so called anti vax propaganda online after false claims that she was injured in the Pfizer beyond tech vaccine trials.

  • This report by a reporter, Mariana Spring, contains images some people may find uncomfortable.

  • Along with vaccine news come rumors and conspiracy theories.

  • False claims that vaccines will be used to inject microchips to cause deliberate harm or toe Alter your DNA.

  • A resurfacing on social media They are worlds away from legitimate questions about the speed and safety of covert 19 vaccinations Throughout the pandemic, vaccine conspiracy theories have been gathering steam on social media.

  • But where do they come from and how do they spread?

  • Mm, let me tell y'all, this is Patricia.

  • She's from Texas, and pictures of her feet inadvertently became fuel for anti vaccine conspiracies.

  • She was a participant in the trial to test the Pfizer beyond tech vaccine around the same time, she developed a skin condition on her feet.

  • A relative set up a crowdfunding campaign to pay her medical bills.

  • It's mistakenly claimed that her condition was the result of the vaccine on were shared online by prominent pseudoscience influences, including here in the UK I know it's really disgusting, but it turns out she didn't even get the jab.

  • She was part of the group that received the placebo, a salty solution on doctors confirmed to us that her illnesses unrelated to the vaccine.

  • I have to assume some culpability for putting my story out there.

  • Andi, I get it.

  • It's social media like things you just do.

  • Share it for one second and it can get picked up and go viral people trying to push their agenda on me and I am totally pro science.

  • Governments and social media sites have made repeated commitments the tackling falsehoods about vaccines online, including Facebook, who now says it will remove them.

  • It's arguably too little, too late, but social media experts question whether this is the right approach for those hardened anti vax very theorists.

  • Removal of content will only build their understanding of the conspiracy theory that big tech elites and others are trying to control them through methods like content removal on vaccination.

  • Now that people here in the UK is starting to receive the coronavirus vaccine, stories like Patricia's twisted to fuel harmful online disinformation could become very common.

  • Mariana Spring, BBC knees.

Now, as people begin receiving vaccines in the UK, social media is alive with conspiracy theories about the potential risks that a coronavirus vaccine could pose.

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