It took mere minutes for anti-vaxxers to flood social media with claims the NFL player’s collapse was caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a statement posted on Twitter in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Bills said that Hamlin “suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the UC Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”
But even before the game was officially called off on Monday night, conspiracies about Hamlin’s injury were spreading like wildfire on social media, where conspiracy theorists and right-wing trolls claimed that Hamlin had “died suddenly” because he had received the COVID-19 vaccination.
On Twitter, multiple accounts made completely unproven connections between Hamlin’s collapse and the COVID vaccine.
There’s a lot of anti-vaccine misinformation being spread about Damar Hamlin right now. People are attributing his collapse to the COVID vaccine, despite no evidence of a connection. They will use any opportunity, even tragedy, to advance their agenda. pic.twitter.com/2hBAqK7L4l
— Caroline Orr Bueno, Ph.D (@RVAwonk) January 3, 2023