On Monday, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest after a tackle. The most likely diagnosis is commotio cordis, cardiac arrest after chest trauma. That didn’t stop antivaxxers from undergoing all-too-familiar contortions to blame it on vaccines.
With antivaxxers blaming sudden adult death syndrome (SADS) on COVID-19 vaccines, of course, they’re citing SIDS now as being caused by MMR.
Antivaxxers are falsely claiming that COVID-19 vaccines have been causing an epidemic of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome (SADS, also a misnomer for Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome), because of course they are, and of course to them it’s all a “coverup.”
Reports of Bell’s palsy and syncopy after vaccination with RNA-based COVID-19 vaccines remind us how antivaxxers will weaponize anything bad happening after vaccination. Sadly, I predict an impending tsunami of confusing correlation with causation.
Antivaxxers Amy Becker and Mark Blaxill try to use COVID-19 death statistics to claim that declines in vaccination due to lockdowns in response to the pandemic caused a decline in the number of children dying every week, thus wildly speculating that vaccines cause SIDS. It does not go well.
