A US Woman Ran Into An Escaped Lab Monkey & The 'Outbreak' Conspiracies Are Out Of Control
No, this isn't the next pandemic.
A woman from Pennsylvania thought she was doing the right thing by helping out some furry creatures at the scene of a car crash.
What she didn't expect was that she'd have a close encounter with a very irritated lab monkey — or that her story would inspire a bunch of movie-like conspiracy theories and fears.
Early reports suggested that the woman had developed a cough and pink eye after the monkey encounter, and some leaped to the conclusion that the two were connected. The story spread widely online, with conservative commentator Ann Coulter and others hinting at a virus outbreak.
The woman, Michele Fallon, tried to clear the whole thing up with a statement to the Daily item this week, after some reports claimed that the monkey had made her ill.
"I want people to know that I am not sick," she told the outlet, before also posting her side of the story on Facebook.
"People think I have a monkey virus," she wrote in the post.
The incident occurred on January 21, when Fallon witnessed a brutal crash between two trucks, one of which was transporting the lab monkeys. The collision threw a bunch of crates holding 100 lab monkeys onto the highway, and a few even escaped.
“I was close to the monkeys, I touched the crates, I walked through their feces, so I was very close,” Fallon told PA Homepage. “I thought I was just doing the right thing by helping — I had no idea it would turn out this way.”
According to Fallon, her feeling ill had nothing to do with the monkeys.
She not only got hissed at by a lab monkey that day, but she also found out that she'd just had a COVID close encounter, she said.
“I found out I was at a birthday party Friday night, and people there had COVID-19,” she told the Daily Item. “I was exposed to the monkeys and exposed to people with COVID. It was the worst day of my life.”
She says she spoke to the CDC after the crash and also got checked out by a doctor, who gave her a rabies shot and some antibiotics as a precaution.
However, she did not say anything about testing positive for a virus because of the monkeys.
Since the crash, all the monkeys were located, and three were even euthanized. Officials did not say why the monkeys were killed, according to the Associated Press.
Police had also issued a warning about an escaped monkey at the time of the crash — one that might have helped Fallon avoid her situation.
"Anyone who sees or locates the monkey is asked not to approach, attempt to catch, or come in contact with the monkey," they said, according to the AP.
"Please call 911 immediately.”
