Data deficit: Why did NFL player Damar Hamlin collapse?
Challenges:
NFL player Damar Hamlin collapsed and suffered cardiac arrest after being tackled during a football game on Monday, January 2.
His heartbeat was restored and he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. As of January 3, he remained in critical condition.
Anti-vaccine advocates took to social media to claim – without evidence – that Hamlin’s collapse was an adverse event resulting from Covid-19 vaccination.
Hamlin’s vaccination status is unknown at this time, but 95% of NFL players are vaccinated against Covid-19, according to the League.
Fuels Rumors:
Anti-vaccine advocates have claimed for years now that mRNA vaccines cause serious cardiac-related adverse events, and that those events are especially common in young men.
Those same advocates have also claimed, with scant evidence, that a number of medical events suffered by athletes are, again, Covid-19 vaccine adverse events.
Hamlin’s collapse and cardiac arrest served as another opportunity to shine renewed attention on these false claims.
