The Physics of Magnetism Through Anti-vax Hoaxes
Some physicists enjoy teaching physics through commenting on science fiction. I enjoy commenting on S.F. more as an opportunity for sarcasm. Apparently, the vaccine magnetism hoax is still present, since there was today a CNN interview with a Tik-Tok influencer who was dispelling the hoax that vaccines caused self magnetism. We had dispelled this in an earlier blog article. The key point there, was that aluminum, which is in some vaccines, is not a magnetic material. Also, aluminum is not even in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. But following the magnetism hoax further leads to even more magnetic sarcasm.
First of all, the volume of the Pfizer vaccine given is only 0.3 ml for each dosage. Kids who grew up playing with magnets, know that distributing that throughout the body would not be enough to generate a usable magnetic field, and not even if it all stayed in the arm muscle, where it does. So we must assume that the vaccine or the antibodies made from it somehow direct the iron in hemoglobin to align in a magnet. Just a lot of iron molecules floating around randomly oriented have zero net magnetic field and cannot induce any magnetic effects.
If the cruel anti-vax hoaxers knew any physics, or had actually experienced body magnetism, they would know which direction their body had aligned in. Even my iPhone has a magnetic field detection app. Take one of your fridge magnets and see if you have any spoons that will get an induced field and bind to it. Since we know of no reason why the North or South magnetic pole would be the one on one’s head, there may be two types of vaccinated people: North headers, and South headers. Now for the magnetic fun. North headers and South headers would be attracted to each other, while North-North and South-South couples would be repulsive to each other. Why have the 2.3 billion people on Earth who have received at least one vaccine shot not noticed this effect? That is all we need, another reason to keep people apart. Since animals are now catching the Coronavirus, including deer and zoo felines, that would lead to literal ‘animal magnetism’.
Bringing two similarly aligned magnets together takes energy to force them together, while oppositely aligned magnets will attract each other, producing a lower energy state. We will now have serious physical problems. If arms are aligned in the same magnetic direction as the central body, say for a North header, it will be hard to keep your hands at your side, since they will be South poles, and go flying into the outstretched position, attracted by your head and repelled from your South feet. This would make it impossible to navigate crowded city streets, not to mention moving into buses and subway cars. I have not heard about such affected individuals at all. But the thermodynamics of moving to lower energy states would force the arms to be opposite the foot to head alignment, and everybody’s arms would then be glued to their sides.
Again, the movement to a lower energy state would require legs to oppositely align, and they would then be attracted to each other, and stuck together. The anti-vax magnetism demonstrators would never even make it into the studios or state or county committees to demonstrate their attraction to spoons.
We have been watching the Olympics, and most of the athletes have been vaccinated. However, by Faraday’s law, every time they did a forward or backward flip, the movement of their magnetic poles and changing magnetic fields would generate electric fields and currents in any nearby cameras, playing havoc with the video pictures. No such coordinated disturbances have shown up.
Notice I use the word ‘hoax’ for such disinformation, since that is the standard word preferred by all right wing anti-vaxers. (Every time I try typing ‘vaxers’ the autocorrect on my iPad says ‘Vader’s’. Now, there is a conspiracy to explore.)
Dick Tracy, the detective character, said that “the nation that controls magnetism will rule the world”, back in 1966. That prescient statement foresaw the hoax created by anti-vaxers 55 years later.
This article started with the realization that it would be easy to identify vaccinated patrons of restaurants indoors. They would be the ones with the spoons stuck to their faces. If you are magnetized, be sure not to order steak. While some of my spoons can be lifted by a fridge magnet, the magnet really attracts metallic steak knives. I realize now that just turning on my iPhone magnetic field app would spot them immediately. That would solve the ‘Vaccine Passport’ and screening problem that anti-vaxers so fear.
In Philosophy 1A, we learned the principle that ‘my freedom to use my fist stops at someone’s nose’. That is pathetically realized today, in that the viral transmission comes from and takes root in people’s noses.
By the way, if the media stopped showing pictures of a needle going deeply into someone’s arm every time they want to discuss vaccines, I think there would be a lot less vaccine hesitancy.
