On April 27, the zoo released an official statement from their senior veterinarian, Thomas de Maar, explaining that, upon examination of Martha’s body, he and his colleagues had found “multiple organ abnormalities, which, in turn, created a life-ending cascade. In the days before her death, she was receiving treatment for a urinary tract infection, but seemed fine otherwise, according to zookeepers who monitor the Gladys Porter Zoo’s animals several times every day. The tweet ultimately linked back to a conspiratorial Substack newsletter post about Martha’s death that has circulated widely in vaccine-skeptic circles. FAUCI’S NA?I SCIENCE KILL HER,” one account on Twitter blared in a tweet posted on May 7. “TOTALLY UNNECESSARY TO GIVE THE ANIMALS THE VACCINE FOR COVID. Accordingly, it’s triggered a fresh round of digital outrage as it’s spread across fringe corners of social media. Yet for all its novel elements, this tale still appears to be grounded in long-standing truther tropes about the risks that vaccines supposedly-but in fact do not-pose to heart health and current or expectant mothers in particular. It seems to signal a new level or type of so-called COVID tyranny, and involves a uniquely tragic victim-a sweet, endangered animal.

This is a compelling narrative for many in the truther crowd. Which, to anti-vax eyes, was clearly caused by the jab. Then she died suddenly and unexpectedly of multiple organ failure, stemming from an undetected fibrosing heart disease. According to a slew of COVID truther articles, newsletters, and social media posts, she was a happy, healthy mother-until zoo staff senselessly injected her with a COVID-19 vaccine. Until last month, Martha, a 32-year-old western lowland gorilla, lived at the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas. But earlier this month, influencers in this space identified a totally new and unexpected alleged vaccine victim: a gorilla. After spending over a year attempting to implicate overwhelmingly safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines in as many deaths and injuries as possible, you’d think pandemic truthers would be running low on novel fearmongering narratives to peddle.

Gladys porter zoo gorillas