Video montage of athletes collapsing isn’t evidence of vaccine harm
A selectively edited montage of video clips showing athletes fainting or collapsing is circulating as “evidence” that COVID-19 vaccines are causing an increase in such incidents. But that’s not true. Let’s take a look at the facts.
The athletes shown collapsing in this video montage are not experiencing side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
The clips show players and referees in various sports collapsing for different reasons, including dehydration, heat exhaustion and, in one case, a soccer player (who was unvaccinated at the time) in cardiac arrest.
Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is an extremely rare and treatable side effect of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines among young people.
Myocarditis also can be caused by COVID-19 itself.
NewsLit takeaway
Creating collections of out-of-context headlines, images and video clips, especially those that evoke a strong emotional response, is a common disinformation tactic. These “evidence collages” are often used to manipulate public sentiment about a subject. In this case, a selective montage of athletes collapsing is designed to mislead the viewer into falsely believing there has been a sharp increase in such incidents that coincides with the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
Related:
- “Fact Check: List Is NOT A Verified Accurate Account Of 108 Deaths Of FIFA Players And Coaches In Six Months Of 2021” (Sarah Thompson, Lead Stories).
- “Pre-pandemic video shared in misleading posts about girl 'collapsing after Covid-19 vaccine'” (AFP Fact Check).
- “Fact check: COVID-19 vaccines safe for children, not linked to deaths” (Daniel Funke, USA Today).
- “Benefits Outweigh Risks of Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccine, Contrary to Posts Misusing VAERS Data” (Lori Robertson and Jessica McDonald, FactCheck.org).
Featured Fact-Checks
- “Does Video Show Athletes Fainting Due to COVID-19 Vaccine?” (Dan Evon, Snopes).