WASHINGTON – Unsubstantiated claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines multiplied in the hours and days following the Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamelin broke down during Monday’s game, revealing how widespread misinformation about vaccines persists three years into the pandemic.
Even before Hamlin was carried off the field in Cincinnati, posts with thousands of shares and millions of views were circulating online claiming, without any evidence, that complications from COVID-19 vaccines were his cause health emergency.
While heart specialists say it’s too early to know which caused Hamlin’s heart to stop, you have offered a rare type of trauma called commotio cordis as one of the possible culprits. Doctors polled by The Associated Press say there is no evidence Hamlin’s vaccination status played a role and said there was no evidence to support claims that a number of young athletes have died as a result of COVID vaccinations.
Peter McCullough, a cardiologist from Dallas and outspoken critic, reinforced the theories in a Fox News segment hosted by Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, speculating that “vaccine-induced myocarditis” may have caused Hamlin’s episode. While the bills didn’t say whether Hamlin was vaccinated, about 95% of NFL players have received a COVID-19 vaccine. according to the league.
In Tuesday’s post, Carlson claimed McCullough and another researcher had found that there had been “more than 1,500 total cardiac arrests” in European athletes “since the vaccine campaign began.”
But Carlson cited a letter in which the authors’ evidence was a dubious blog listing news reports of people around the world, of all ages, dying or experiencing medical emergencies. The blog does not prove a link between the incidents and COVID-19 vaccines; it also includes reported cancer deaths and emergencies of unknown cause in its count.
“It’s not real research, but he cites it as if it were real research,” said Dr. Matthew Martinez, director of exercise cardiology at the Atlantic Health System at Morristown Medical Center. “Anyone can write a letter to the editor and then cite an article that has no academic rigor.”
Many social media users have it too shared cheating videos purporting to show athletes collapsing on the field because of COVID-19 vaccines. However, some of the cases shown have demonstrably other causes.
Although anti-vaccination influencers have insisted that sudden cardiac arrests during sports games are unprecedented, cardiologists say they have observed these traumatic events throughout their careers and well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There have always been cases of sudden cardiac death or cardiac arrest in athletes,” said Dr. Lawrence Phillips, a sports health expert and cardiologist at NYU Langone Health. “I haven’t noticed any change in the prevalence of them in recent years compared to earlier in my career.”
In fact, Phillips said, these rare medical emergencies are the main reason doctors and activists have fought for years to keep defibrillators on standby at sporting events.
That push and implementation of contingency plans have improved outcomes after on-field cardiac events, although the number of such events has remained “remarkably stable,” Martinez said.
Martinez, who has worked for the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer, said he investigated but saw no evidence that COVID-19 or vaccines are linked to an increased incidence of heart events cause athletes.
His research shows that among professional athletes who had COVID-19, inflammatory heart disease rates were around 0.6% — showing no increased risk compared to other viruses.
Online posts mentioning Hamlin and vaccines soared into the thousands within an hour of Hamlin’s collapse, according to analysis conducted for the AP by Zignal Labs, a San Francisco-based media intelligence firm.
It’s not surprising that misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines increased after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest. given how a lot of vaccination misinformation has been spreading since the pandemic began, said Jeanine Guidry, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who studies health misinformation and vaccine hesitation.
High-profile public events like Hamlin’s collapse often create new waves of misinformation as people seek explanations. For people concerned about vaccine safety, Hamlin’s sudden collapse served to validate and justify their beliefs, Guidry said.
“This happened to a person in the prime of life on primetime television, and viewers didn’t immediately know why,” she said. “We want clear answers that give us a sense of security. Especially after the last three years, I think that comes from fear and insecurity.”
Similarly baseless claims of vaccination injuries mounted after the death of sportswriter Grant Wahl last month from a ruptured blood vessel in his heart while covering the World Cup in Qatar. His death was not related to vaccines.
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Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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