Officials investigating how anti-vaccine poster ended up in NYC bus stop

Thursday, December 2, 2021

DOT investigating how anti-vaccine poster ended up in NYC bus stop

An anti-vaccination ad, designed to look like a New York City ad encouraging vaccination, somehow ended up in a bus stop in Brooklyn.

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- An anti-vaccination ad, designed to look like a New York City ad encouraging vaccination, somehow ended up in a bus stop in Brooklyn.

The poster was spotted by a Twitter use at a B43 bus stop at Carroll Street and Kingston Avenue in Crown Heights.

The Department of Transportation outsources bus stop ads to a vendor, who is telling them they didn't sell this.

DOT is now investigating whether someone vandalized the bus stop and put the poster up themselves.

"Street furniture will not promote vaccine disinformation in our city," the DOT said in a statement. "This poster is coming down today. Our franchisee didn't sell this ad, and it's possible that someone pried open the glass casing. We'll continue to investigate and share more information as soon as we can."

MTA Communications Director Tim Minton released the following statement about the poster:

"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. We appreciate NYC DOT announcing it will remove ads that spread disinformation during a public health crisis."

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