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Vancouverites react to conspiracy theory that emergency alert will turn people into 'zombies'

"Apparently I’ll be a zombie tomorrow, so it was nice knowing you all."
Elana Shepert
Elana Shepert
pack-of-zombies-vancouver
The Fema emergency alert system took place on Oct. 4, 2023, and QAnon members believed people may turn into zombies because of 5G and COVID-19 vaccines.Photo via gremlin/E+/Getty Images

Vancouverites have joined people across the country in a scathing critique of an extremist reaction to an emergency alert south of the border.

On Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 11:20 a.m. (PDT), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) emergency alert system activated a U.S.-wide emergency test on cellphones, wireless devices, radios, and TVs.

The standard test takes place at least once every three years to ensure that the Emergency Alert System (EAS) will be an effective way to warn the public about emergencies. People who received the alert did not have to take any action.

But many conspiracy theorists, most notably members of the far-right group QAnon, proposed that the activation may turn people who received a COVID-19 vaccine into zombies. 

The outlandish connection between COVID-19 and technology originated at the onset of the pandemic when conspiracists blamed 5G towers for transmission of the virus.

What is 5G? 

5G is a fifth-generation telecommunications technology that relies on a "different part of the radiofrequency spectrum than previous versions of cellular technology" and requires a microchip to access it, according to the Encylopedia Britannica. 

Since it requires a microchip, conspiracists have proposed several unfounded theories about health risks and mind control.

The U.S. National Library of Medicine notes that many people who hold these distorted conceptions of 5G or vaccines may believe they could be part of anything from "Satan's strategy” to advance the apocalypse or a plan to embed microchips into "vaccines for the purposes of surveillance or control."

Vancouverites react to emergency alert and 'zombie' connection

While there was a sizable concern about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse south of the border, the vast majority of locals found the reaction laughable.

Starting on Tuesday, people across the Lower Mainland began mocking the extremist discourse, with most people characterizing the reactions as "silly."

Several locals quipped that they were "preparing" for the impending doomsday scenario, joking that they had either just been turned into a zombie or wanted to wish their loved ones well before they did. 

As of this writing, there have been no signs of a zombie apocalypse in the Lower Mainland — or anywhere on Earth, for that matter.