“Died suddenly”: on social networks, death recovered by anti-vaccines

Covid vaccination has been a major topic of misinformation since its inception in 2021 and claims linking vaccines and sudden deaths have seen a surge in virality since the release in late November of a video titled “Died suddenly”.

His shocking images of young people collapsing for no apparent reason, interspersed with anxiety-provoking comments about vaccines, had racked up more than 9 million views on the Rumble video platform as of January 17.

The day after its release, the hashtag “diedsuddenly” exploded on Twitter, jumping from 4,000 tweets on November 20 to more than 76,000 on November 22.

“Every time a tweet makes the link between death and the vaccine, it’s guaranteed buzz“, analyzes the French sociologist of science and beliefs Romy Sauvayre (University of Clermont Auvergne), interviewed by AFP.

“An old antivax technique“, abounds the American oncologist David Gorski on the site for the fight against medical misinformation Sciencebasedmedicine, while recalling that”there is no evidence of correlation, let alone causationbetween the vaccine and these sudden deaths.

Sudden deaths of athletes, lists of deceased doctors… The examples of publications attributing deaths to vaccines are countless and have given rise to numerous AFP verification articles in recent weeks.

“Unfounded Fears”

While very rare side effects have been reported, pharmacovigilance does not show waves of sudden deaths due to vaccines, which scientists confirm.

False information embroidering on the theme of sudden death seems inexhaustible, the majority of the world’s population being vaccinated today.

For anti-vaccines, explains Ms. Sauvayre, these fakes are part of a “confirmation bias”: “people already convinced[oftheharmfulnessofthevaccineEd)willhavetheirbeliefconfirmed[delanocivitéduvaccinNDLR)vontvoirconfirmerleurcroyance“.

Vaccines have always been subject to unfounded fears, she recalls: “the one against hepatitis was accused of causing multiple sclerosis, the one against measles of causing autism“.

With messenger RNA vaccines, “we go to another dimension: they are suspected of modifying genetics and killing“. The vaccine would be used “to reduce the world population“, say Internet users.

So much so that some claim that the excess mortality observed in France in 2022 is due to vaccines. If the excess mortality observed by anti-vaccines is confirmed by INSEE, it is in no way linked to the anti-covid vaccine but to the virus itself which, according to the WHO, caused 6.6 million deaths worldwide. .

Tuesday, while INSEE announced that France recorded in 2022 its lowest birth rate since 1946, Internet users also saw the brand of the vaccine, responsible for a “decline in fertility“, even “miscarriages”. Again, assertions repeatedly denied by many doctors.

Blur on death

“Death remains shrouded in a certain mystery, with a somewhat philosophical imprint“, observes Sebastian Dieguez, specialist in conspiracy at the University of Friborg (Switzerland), adding that conspiracy surfs on the vagueness around the causes of death “not always easy to elucidate”.

Lining up the examples of deaths to link them, without proof, to vaccines, constitutes “an inexhaustible vein” of misinformation, according to him.

The death of stars, in particular, has always been fertile ground for speculation, notes the sociologist, taking as an example the legends surrounding the premature death of Elvis Presley.

After the cardiac arrest of American footballer Damar Hamlin in the middle of a match in early January, mentions “died suddenly” quadrupled on Twitter, according to the American NGO CCDH (Centre for the fight against hate online).

“Literally seconds after Lisa Marie Presley or Jeff Beck died, tweets linked their deaths to the vaccine“, remarks Sebastian Dieguez, “dramas are exploited to score ideological points on the issue of vaccines“.