An official-looking poster about why New Yorkers shouldn't get the COVID-19 appeared on an MTA bus shelter as city officials urge them to do the opposite amid months-long high metrics and the discovery of omicron variant cases.
It's unclear when the ad appeared near a B43 bus stop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, but a spokesperson for the MTA says the agency is not responsible for it.
“Bus shelters are not MTA property and though we would prefer not to have objectionable messages marketed to our customers, we have no power to manage content for these facilities, which are controlled by the City of New York," MTA Communications Director Tim Minton said in a statement.
Disinformation about coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccines is all over social media but some can be found on the streets in the form of small stickers and posters. The giant ad found this week listed 10 reasons why people shouldn't get the shot that health experts across the globe recommend.
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At the bottom of the poster encased in glass, readers are urged to visit a website that promotes the wildly discredited veterinary drug Ivermectin as one of the treatments for COVID-19. The FDA had warned Americans to stop using the dewormer drug over the summer but disinformation about it has persisted.
New York City Department of Transportation said the ad is coming down Thursday, adding that its franchisee didn't sell it and that it's possible someone pried open the glass casing.
"We’ll continue to investigate and share more information as soon as we can," the DOT wrote in a tweet.
