A viral social media post penned by Arnold Schwarzenegger urged people to trust experts on COVID-19 vaccine information.
Snopes is still fighting an 'infodemic' of rumors and misinformation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and you can help. Find out what we've learned and how to inoculate yourself against COVID-19 misinformation. Read the latest fact checks about the vaccines. Submit any questionable rumors and 'advice' you encounter. Become a Founding Member to help us hire more fact-checkers. And, please, follow the CDC or WHO for guidance on protecting your community from the disease. In August 2021, a screenshot supposedly showing a message penned by actor and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that urged people to trust COVID-19 experts was widely circulated on social media. Broadcaster Piers Morgan, for example, shared this image and urged 'every vaccine-sceptic' to read it. This is a genuine screenshot of a message posted by Schwarzenegger. The actor originally posted this message back in January 2021 along with a video of himself receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. The original post was captioned: 'Today was a good day. I have never been happier to wait in a line. If you're eligible, join me and sign up to get your vaccine. Come with me if you want to live!' Schwarzenegger posted this longer message in the comments to the video. As Schwarzenegger's post went viral in August 2021, social media users highlighted two quoteworthy passages. The first is an analogy that demonstrates how people immediately turn to experts when they they find themselves in situations that they are ill-equipped to deal with. When there's a fire, for example, people turn to the fire department, not YouTube. Schwarzenegger argues that the same should be true with medical advice. 'Dr. Fauci and all of the virologists and epidemiologists and doctors have studied diseases and vaccines for their entire lives, so I listen to them and I urge you to do the same. None of us are going to learn more than them by watching a few hours of videos. It's simple: if your house in on fire, you don't go on YouTube, you call the damn fire department.' Schwarzenegger, who is one of the most prominent body builders in the world, also closed this message with a salient point about strength. The actor writes that some people may feel that it's a sign of weakness to listen to experts. Arnold, however, says that this is a sign of strength. It takes strength to admit you don't know everything. Weakness is thinking you don't need expert advice and only listening to sources that confirm what you want to believe. You can read Schwarzenegger's full post below: I said this to someone in the comments, but I think a lot of you need to hear this. I always say you should know your strengths and listen to the experts. If you want to learn about building biceps, listen to me, because I've spent my life studying how to get the perfect peak and I have been called the greatest bodybuilder of all time. We all have different specialties. Dr. Fauci and all of the virologists and epidemiologists and doctors have studied diseases and vaccines for their entire lives, so I listen to them and I urge you to do the same. None of us are going to learn more than them by watching a few hours of videos. It's simple: if your house in on fire, you don't go on YouTube, you call the damn fire department. If you have a heart attack, you don't check your Facebook group, you call an ambulance. If 9 doctors tell you you have cancer and need to treat it or you will die, and 1 doctor says the cancer will disappear, you should always side with the 9. In this case, virtually all of the real experts around the world are telling us the vaccine is safe and some people on Facebook are saying it isn't. In general, I think if the circle of people you trust gets smaller and smaller and you find yourself more and more isolated, it should be a warning sign that you're going down a rabbit hole of misinformation. Some people say it is weak to listen to experts. That's bogus. It takes strength to admit you don't know everything. Weakness is thinking you don't need expert advice and only listening to sources that confirm what you want to believe.
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