The Brief: People are adding allusions to literature and film to PSA's about the limitations of what a vaccinated person can do.
DEEP DIVE
As vaccine eligibility opens up for more people, “being vaccinated does NOT mean” memes on Twitter highlight things that people should still refrain from doing, even if they’ve been fully vaxxed. These memes typically reference plots in books, movies, and TV shows where someone does something elaborate, out of hand, and/or morally questionable.
being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite six people you’ve been blackmailing over and pretend to be your butler while coercing them into killing all your informants. no matter how convoluted your scheme might be. please be smart.
— Matt Ford (@JMatthiasFord) April 7, 2021
getting vaccinated is NOT a license to go on a road trip with your best friend, murder an attempted rapist, run from the cops, and drive your convertible off the edge of the grand canyon
— amy brown (@arb) April 7, 2021
Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite three men who you believe might be your father to your destination wedding in Greece without telling anyone.
— Lauren Pokedoff (@LaurenPokedoff) April 6, 2021
Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can host an extravagant party at your West Egg mansion that symbolizes the superficiality and moral corruption of the rich
— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 7, 2021
hey PSA: being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite your friend over for a cask of amontillado sherry, while secretly planning to entomb him within your basement in revenge for a perceived slight
— noah pasarán (@noahpsychs) April 7, 2021
being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite your friend Fortunato over to taste a rare vintage only to exact your revenge by entombing him in the wall of your secret catacombs. Please be smart.
— rae (@PAYOLETTER) April 7, 2021
hey PSA: being vaccinated does NOT mean you can take your son into the city to see a marching band and ask him to be the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned
— Emo Nite (@emonitela) April 7, 2021
Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can attend any social event. You also need the patronage of the esteemed Lady Catherine de Bourgh.
— Icona 📚 (@Iconawrites) April 7, 2021
being vaccinated does NOT mean you can travel to sweden with your boyfriend and his friends to attend one of his friends' rural hometown's fabled midsummer festival
— jonny sun has a new book coming out in april! (@jonnysun) April 7, 2021
being vaccinated does NOT mean that you can go on vacation to Italy and pretend to be your pop star doppelgänger and perform to thousands of people at the Colosseum.
— Elly Belle, notably not a woman 🔮 (@literElly) April 7, 2021
Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can travel to New Jersey and use your powers of magic and mind control to imprison an entire town forcing them to live out your fantasy of a classic sitcom marriage with your synthezoid husband. Jesus. It's called, wear a mask, people.
— Ashley Nicole Black (@ashleyn1cole) April 7, 2021
being vaccinated does NOT mean you can start a theme park on an island populated with dinosaurs cloned from dna found in prehistoric mosquitoes, so preoccupied with whether you could that you didn't stop to think if you should.
— Emma Bolden (@emmabo) April 7, 2021
Being vaccinated does NOT mean you can invite 5 children and their adult chaperones to your chocolate factory to be masochistically tortured in various candy making processes while you arbitrarily choose one to inherit your fortune
— A Literal Homosexual (@kyry5) April 7, 2021
being vaccinated does NOT mean you can just return to the harmonia gardens and dance and sing with a bunch of waiters
— laura j. brown (@laurjbrown) April 7, 2021
While you may still want to avoid living out the plots of these books and movies, here’s the CDC’s guidance on what you should and shouldn’t do once you’ve been fully vaccinated.