NEW YORK (VINnews) — Politifact, a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter, has debunked a theory circulating on social media claiming that numerous athletes have suffered heart attacks and died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
The theory, which cited a German news story, claimed that prominent athletes had died from the heart attacks, even though the story did not make such a claim.
A news article makes the case that dozens of prominent athletes had heart attacks and died following vaccination against COVID-19, and it cites a German news story as proof — even though the story did not say any such thing.
The article appeared with the headline, “German News Agency Tracks 75 Prominent Athletes Suddenly Dead Of Heart Attacks After COVID Vax.” It was shared on Facebook in a post that was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
The story did not claim that all of the athletes died, did not claim thay all had heart attacks and did not tie their conditions to the vaccination. Some of those who died had a history of heart problems or family members who had died of heart attacks.
COVID-19 vaccines have been associated with inflammation of the heart muscle, called myocarditis, with teenage boys and young men most likely to be affected. But the risk is very low, and most cases are mild with a quick recovery. Doctors say the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risk of myocarditis.
The article in the Facebook post, from a site called Mic Drop Politics, gave a brief introduction mentioning 75 deaths, then presents a partial list of the people included in the German news story. The first person mentioned in the story, Italian soccer player Giuseppe Perrino, died of a heart attack June 2 while playing in a soccer game honoring his brother who had died of a heart attack while cycling in 2018. None of the stories about Perrino’s death claim that he had been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The second soccer player mentioned, Danish international Christian Eriksen is alive despite collapsing during a European Championship soccer game in June and suffering a cardiac arrest. Eriksen too had not been vaccinated against COVID-19, despite rumors to the contrary.
Speed skater Kjeld Nuis is listed third, and he is also alive. He experienced inflammation of the sac surrounding his heart in July following COVID-19 vaccination, but “recovered well” and joined a training camp two weeks later, according to a report by Netherland News.
And another last night, Sherrif Tiraspol winger Adama Traore #footballer #collapse pic.twitter.com/BPlBjRnbzq
— hugotalks (@hugotalks1) November 25, 2021
Soccer player Adama Traore collapses during soccer game last week
The list of players also includes less prominent athletes despite touting them as “prominent.” The original story acknowledges that a large number of people on the list survived the heart incidents but the Facebook article omits this important information.
Politifact concludes that the Facebook article is false because it misquotes the original article and omits the important caveats that some of the people listed were not vaccinated against COVID-19, and some who died had a history of heart problems or a family history of death by heart attack.
The truth is that we do not know whether getting vaccinated for COVID increases rates of myocarditis or not. We just don’t have good enough descriptive epidemiology on the age-specific rates of myocarditis in unvaccinated populations. The rates that have been reported in vaccinated populations are within the (wide) range of rates reported in unvaccinated populations. In fact, it is very likely that getting vaccinated for COVID reduces ones risk from myocarditis because myocarditis is a consequence of getting COVID and the condition can be very severe or even fatal in such circumstances. Myocarditis cases reported after vaccination are rare and usually mild.
Get vaccinated!