New Brunswick — Now that the South African COVID-19 variant is beginning to make its way across the province, health officials are urging caution, while those infected are blaming the “Mandela Effect.”
This of course, is in reference to the phenomena in which people believe they heard that Nelson Mandela died in prison, or that the popular book series The Berenstain Bears was once spelled The Berenstein Bears, et cetera. Online, this phenomena is known as the “Mandela Effect,” whereas offline, it’s better known as “ignorance.”
In this same spirit, many of the people infected by the variant claim that they, collectively, believed that the COVID pandemic was “over.”
“Let me tell you, I kind of feel like I’m in an alternate timeline right now,” said one patient, between coughs. “I could have sworn that this whole COVID thing was over — so I was just going back to normal, then — bam! I have it. It’s just the weirdest thing.”
As the so-called “effect” is just a popular rebranding of the common “false memory” phenomenon, medical professionals believe that more infections will only exacerbate the problem, as the virus has been known to directly impact memory.
“Like, get this — you think it’s Looney Toons, right? Well, it isn’t. It’s actually Looney Tunes! Crazy, right!?” said the patient, in summation. “Also, I’ve forgotten what my oldest grandchild looks like.”