Tucker Carlson Uses Damar’s Collapse to Spread Disinformation

NFL participant Damar Hamlin, a security for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed mid-game on Monday night time—in the course of the first quarter of a match in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin stays hospitalized in essential situation, following an apparent heart attack, based on a statement posted throughout the Buffalo Bills’ official crew social media accounts.

Yet inside hours of the soccer participant falling unconscious and crumpling on the sphere, anti-vax conspiracy theorists seized the chance to unfold disinformation on the web. Numerous tweets insinuating (or outright blaming) the covid-19 vaccine for Hamlin’s collapse popped up within the incident’s aftermath, as first reported by the Washington Post.

“Everybody knows what happened to Damar Hamlin because it’s happened to too many athletes around the world since COVID vaccination was required in sports,” former Newsmax and OANN corespondent, Emerald Robinson, tweeted. She has almost 500,000 followers on the platform, and her publish has been considered greater than 2.3 million instances.

Charlie Kirk, famous disinformation disseminator and Turning Point USA founder, stoked the fireplace of the identical conspiracy principle, tweeting “This is a tragic and all too familiar sight right now: Athletes dropping suddenly.” Kirk has almost 2 million followers and his publish has been seen greater than 11.7 million instances.

Business mogul and distinguished anti-vaxxer, Grant Cardone, additionally shortly joined in on the unscientific theorizing. He tweeted, “Do you think the medical society should investigate THE VACCINE as responsible for sudden deaths like tonight’s Damar Hamlin collapse? #SuddenDeath,” in a post that’s been considered greater than 3.4 million instances. Note: Damar Hamlin just isn’t lifeless, and his situation is reportedly improving.

Then, the conspiracy acquired much more publicity on Tuesday night time when Tucker Carlson took to cable tv to name medical consultants and different media shops “witch doctors,” and promote vaccine skepticism. His argument: “We can’t say it was the shot. We can’t say it wasn’t the shot. We don’t whether he got the shot.”

But right here’s the factor: We do know that the danger of coronary heart irritation and different cardiac issues is considerably larger with coronavirus an infection itself, than from the vaccine. Myocarditis, or coronary heart irritation, is a documented, rare side effect of the vaccine. In one study of 43 million folks, simply 617 skilled myocarditis inside 28 days of receiving a vaccine. And folks, each unvaccinated and vaccinated, had been about 10 instances extra prone to find yourself with myocarditis instantly following a constructive covid check than following vaccination. Another 2022 study decided covid an infection elevated myocarditis threat by seven fold greater than covid vaccination.

Because vaccines nonetheless accomplish that a lot to cut back the danger and severity of infections, even against newer variants, the covid-19 vaccine truly protects coronary heart well being. The most up-to-date, fast-spreading variants do appear to evade vaccine immunity higher than previous viral strains. However, vaccinated persons are nonetheless considerably much less seemingly than unvaccinated folks to be contaminated or change into significantly sick with covid-19—and are thus much less prone to find yourself with myocarditis.

Conversely, sudden cardiac arrest in athletes is a well-documented, tragic phenomenon that predates the covid-19 pandemic. Sudden cardiac demise is “the most frequent medical cause of sudden death in athletes,” mentioned one 2016 medical research. Other studies, a minimum of one more than 25 years old, illustrate the actual threat of “commotio cordis,” a time period for blunt pressure trauma to the chest and subsequent sudden cardiac arrest and demise. Though the situation is uncommon general, it’s significantly extra widespread amongst athletes, Christopher Madias, a doctor and researcher at Tufts Medical Center, told NPR.

Right earlier than his collapse, Hamlin was tackled and hit hard within the torso. With commotio cordis, such blows set off the center’s electrical signals to misfire and lead the organ to cease all of the sudden. It has occurred to skilled athletes earlier than. For occasion, hockey participant Chris Pronger, who went down throughout a 1998 NHL recreation. Pronger recovered and performed within the league for 13 more years.

Amid the muddle of vaccine conspiracies, multiple doctors and different medical consultants have taken to Twitter and media shops to clarify this far more possible principle. Yet, these posts seem to have a fraction of the views and engagement because the anti-vax content material.

Prior to Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover, covid-19 misinformation was barred on the platform. Posts selling unfounded, anti-vax rhetoric could possibly be flagged for removing and brought down. At the top of November, nevertheless, the platform dropped the coverage. And Musk himself has a number of anti-vax posts, implying that those that get the shot are “brainwashed.”

But, in barely extra uplifting web information, Damar Hamlin’s hospitalization has additionally led to an outpouring of assist for the participant and his household. The response to Hamlin’s medical emergency hasn’t simply been conspiracy tweets. A GoFundMe web page that Hamlin initially arrange in 2020 to buy toys for youngsters in want has raised hundreds of thousands of {dollars} since Monday’s incident. Thousands of the donations are additionally accompanied by written well-wishes for Hamlin and hope for his restoration

Amid the renewed consideration on the fundraiser, a consultant of the Hamlin household wrote, “Damar created The Chasing M’s Foundation to use as a vehicle to bring lasting impact to his community. The foundation supports toy drives, back-to-school drives, kids camps, and more,” in an replace. “We’re hopeful about Damar’s future involvement in disbursing the incredibly generous contributions.”