Last week, a University of Southern California basketball player and son of an NBA star was admitted to the hospital after going into cardiac arrest during a workout. Shortly after the news broke, vaccine opponents began baselessly claiming that his cardiac arrest was vaccine-related. Speculation about the young athlete having vaccine-induced myocarditis has garnered millions of views and thousands of shares on social media.
Vaccine opponents have a well-established pattern of seizing on high-profile illness and death as alleged evidence of a COVID-19 vaccine injury. These false claims are the conclusion of a consistent, multi-year misinformation campaign. Debunking messaging may explain that there is no evidence that the athlete’s condition is vaccine-related and that this is just the latest example of the well-established trend of vaccine opponents exploiting a high-profile injury or death to spread misinformation about vaccine safety. Messaging may also emphasize that cardiac events, while rare, are the leading cause of sports-related deaths among young athletes. The issue has been a major concern for over a decade, so much so that the NCAA released specific guidance in 2016 to prevent cardiac events in college athletes.
