M'sians feeling magnetic, stick metal objects on themselves after Covid-19 vaccine

Debunked: It is probably sticky sweat and friction.

Andrew Koay | July 11, 2021, 03:53 PM

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A bizarre rumour regarding the Covid-19 vaccine seems to have taken hold among some — that receiving your jab makes your body magnetic.

The rumour has been bolstered by images and videos of bodies with metal objects — often utensils, sometimes larger tools — seemingly magnetically stuck to the skin.

The hashtag "#CovidVaccineMagnet" 8.8 million views on TikTok, though the videos feature a mix of users mocking and "proving" the rumour.

Malaysian actors sharing about the phenomena

Closer to home, several Malaysian actors have also shared their experience with the phenomena.

Koe Yeet posted a story on Instagram asking her followers for help in explaining why it was happening.

Image from Koe Yeet's Instagram page

Koe described how a spoon that was wiped clean was able to stick to both of her mother's arms.

However, she dismissed the Covid-19 vaccine as a possible explanation and encouraged her followers to get vaccinated.

Another Malaysian actress, Lim Ching Miau, shared several images of her father on Facebook, showing various metal objects stuck to his bare upper torso.

Image from Lim Ching Miau's Facebook

Image from Lim Ching Miau's Facebook

There was even photos of a meat cleaver that appeared to cling to the man's chest and arm.

"My papa win liao," she wrote, along with some loving emojis.

So what explains this strange occurrence?

As has been painstakingly explained by many media outlets and authorities, you can definitely rule out the presence of microchips in the vaccines.

Taking a closer look at the vaccines list of ingredients, as the the New York Times did, shows that mRNA vaccines — such as the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines — do not contain microchips or any other ingredients that may cause magnetism.

The real explanation is far more mundane.

Wired reasons that it probably has something to do with sweat on the surface of the human skin that makes us a little sticky.

This sees objects with large, flat surfaces and greater contact area with the skin more likely to stay stuck.

In fact, the idea of human magnetism has existed way before Covid-19 came into our lives.

There's even a Guinness World Record for "the most spoons magnetised to a body".

Forbes, looking closer at the phenomena of human magnetism in general, wrote that whenever so-called "human magnets" have been tested no magnetic field has been found.

Further debunking the idea, tests have also found that people can just as easily stick non-metallic or non-ferromagnetic metals to their body.

The trick also tends to work better when skin is smooth and hairless, and seems to disappear if you introduce talcum powder between the skin and the metal.

Top image from Lim Ching Miau's Facebook and Koe Yeet's Instagram page