Michele Fallon, 45, witnessed the 21 January crash between a dump truck and a vehicle transporting 100 lab research monkeys near her hometown of Danville, and tried to help some of the fleeing animals.
Conspiracy peddlers on Reddit and Telegram latched on to her story after she developed mild cold and pink eye symptoms, possibly from being exposed to a virus the monkeys were carrying.
Then when the first cases of Monkeypox were reported in the United States in May, the conspiracists linked the outbreak to the truck crash, and claimed that Ms Fallon had died.
Ms Fallon told The Daily Beast in an interview that it was bizarre to witness how the conspiracy evolved from accusing her of making up her encounter with the monkeys, to claiming she had died.
“I can assure you my mother is not the same woman from Pennsylvania,” Jesse Riffle told The Daily Beast, and pleaded with those spreading the fake theories to leave his mother out of it.
Ms Fallon said that even after her bruising experience she would still stop to help animals if she came across them in a traffic accident. Even if it was monkeys.
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source: The Independent
