Anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists are claiming God sent a tornado to North Carolina on Wednesday to severely damage a Pfizer manufacturing plant.
Located in the city of Rocky Mount, the 250-acre site, which produces a significant portion of the country’s sterile injectables, was crushed by winds reaching upwards of 150mph when a twister passed through the area.
The plant, which also manufactures vials, IV bags, and bottles of anesthesia, saw more than 50,000 pallets of goods strewn across the site. No one at the plant received any serious injuries as a result.
Anti-vaccine users on social media, however, immediately saw the devastation as a righteous act of God. In countless comments, conspiracy theorists celebrated the destruction due to their false beliefs surrounding the COVID-19 vaccine.
A writer for the conservative outlet the Blaze, for example, used the incident to state that God clearly had a “sense of humor.” Another user argued that the tornado had actually saved lives by damaging the plant.
Others jokingly stated that God works in mysterious ways to enact his judgment on mankind.
“The Lord moves in mysterious ways..” one user added.
Numerous accounts also cited everything from “poetic justice” to the “Wrath of God” when discussing the natural disaster. Some even went as far as to thank Jesus for the devastation.
“Nice. Thank you Jesus,” one said.
Unsurprisingly, the prominent QAnon promoter and failed political candidate Ron Watkins pointed to biblical scripture after hearing of the news.
“Feels like Genesis 19:24,” Watkins said.
The scripture in question discusses when God is said to have “rained down sulfur upon Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Yet no conspiracy theory would be complete without an even more grandiose interpretation.
At least one user rejected the theory regarding divine intervention to instead accuse Pfizer of blowing up its own plant to destroy some unspecified evidence.
“That’s not an Act of God….. it’s a man-made disaster,” the user tweeted. “If you think the most ruthless company on the planet isn’t capable of destroying evidence – you’re living in lego land!”
In a statement on the disaster, a Pfizer spokesperson said that the pharmaceutical giant was “assessing the situation to determine the impact on production.”
Despite the joy being experienced by anti-vaxxers, it remains unclear whether any COVID-19 vaccine was even being stored at the facility.
