Tackling a new wave of vaccine misinformation

Unfounded claims about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines mushroomed in the hours and days after Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game, revealing how pervasive vaccine misinformation remains three years after the pandemic began.

Even before Hamlin was carried off the field in Cincinnati, posts amassing thousands of shares and millions of views began circulating online claiming without evidence that complications from COVID-19 vaccines caused his health emergency, according to the Associated Press.

An emotional week for the NFL filled with fear, tears, prayer and uncertainty ended with exciting games, dramatic finishes and a celebration for Damar Hamlin.

Hamlin made remarkable progress in his recovery by Thursday. He spoke to teammates for the first time on Friday, telling them: “Love you boys.” While cardiac specialists say it’s too soon to know what caused Hamlin’s heart to stop, they’ve offered a rare type of trauma called commotio cordis as among the possible culprits. Physicians interviewed by AP say there’s no indication Hamlin’s vaccine status played a role, and said there’s no evidence to support claims that a number of young athletes have died as a result of COVID vaccinations.

Peter McCullough, a Dallas cardiologist and outspoken vaccine critic, amplified the theories on a Fox News segment hosted by Tucker Carlson on Tuesday, speculating that “vaccine-induced myocarditis” may have caused Hamlin’s episode. While the Bills have not said whether Hamlin was vaccinated, about 95% of NFL players have received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the league.

In his Tuesday segment, Carlson claimed McCullough and another researcher found that “more than 1,500 cardiac arrests” have occurred among European athletes “since the vax campaign began.”

But Carlson was citing a letter in which the authors’ evidence was a dubious blog that lists news reports of people all over the world, of all ages, dying or experiencing medical emergencies. The blog proves no relationship between the incidents and COVID-19 vaccines; it also includes in its count reported deaths from cancer and emergencies of unknown causes. Many social media users have also shared deceptive videos that purport to show athletes collapsing on-field because of COVID-19 vaccines. However, several of the cases shown have been proven to be from other causes. Though anti-vaccine influencers have insisted that sudden cardiac arrests during sports games are unprecedented, cardiologists say they’ve observed these traumatic events throughout their careers, and long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Online posts mentioning Hamlin and vaccines soared into the thousands within one hour of Hamlin’s collapse, according to an analysis conducted for the AP by Zignal Labs, a San Francisco-based media intelligence company.

It’s not surprising that misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines surged following Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, given how much vaccine misinformation has spread since the pandemic began, said Jeanine Guidry, a Virginia Commonwealth University professor who researches health misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

High-profile public events like Hamlin’s collapse often create new waves of misinformation as people grasp for explanations. For people concerned about vaccine safety, Hamlin’s sudden collapse served to affirm and justify their beliefs, Guidry said. Fear and uncertainty have apparently stoked these theories. Unfounded claims about vaccine injuries surged last month following the death of sports journalist Grant Wahl, who died of a ruptured blood vessel in his heart while covering the World Cup in Qatar. His death was not related to vaccines. In November last year, Twitter said it will no longer enforce its policy against COVID-19 misinformation.

Clearly, many do not do their homework and go blindly by hearsay. This should not be the case. It only leads to spreading more untruths, and confusion over the pandemic. Fact should be sifted from fiction.