According to some reports, a woman who was allegedly bitten by a Pennsylvania monkey is now “not sick.”
Michele Fallon stated that she is healthy despite media reports. She was given antibiotics and rabies shots as a precautionary measure.
She told the Daily, “I want people know that I’m not sick despite what they read in the media.”
On January 21, a truck transporting 100 imported monkeys was heading to Missouri when it collided on an east-central Pennsylvania highway. Fallon, who was on the scene at the time and had already gone to assist the driver when one the escaped monkeys hissed at her face, was the first to arrive.
Fallon stated in a Facebook posting that the truck driver had not told her to avoid the monkeys and she therefore approached them. “I am concerned. She wrote that people think she has a monkey virus.
The news reports that Fallon was ill led to conspiracy theories being spread online.
Many people suggested that the crash was staged to create another pandemic. Jason Boothe tweeted, “Isn’t that how the virus from the movie ‘Outbreak’ started?”
Randy Brown, another Twitter user said, “Monkey virus?” The COVID virus is slowly disappearing and the courts are dropping mandates. It doesn’t seem like it will last until the midterms. So…another “lab accident”!! Monkey virus! Zombies!! Pink eye!! “I think this movie was made about it.”
The CDC states that this monkey species can spread herpes virus through saliva, feces, and urine. Joe Stender, spokesperson of the Geisinger Medical Centre where Fallon was treated, stated that the hospital follows the guidelines of the Pennsylvania Department of Health as well as the CDC. Anyone who is exposed to the monkeys will be treated.
Fallon stated that she attended a party following the monkey incident, where many guests tested positive for COVID.
“I explained the situation and they said that I was very at low risk of any disease, but I went to see a doctor anyway because I began to feel sick,” she stated to the newspaper. She suggested that COVID might have caused her symptoms.
