Died Suddenly

Did the actor Michael B. Jordan die suddenly in Chicago on January 13, 2023? No, that's not true: This is a baseless claim by a clickbait website that routinely publishes death hoaxes. There is no evidence that Jordan has died although his name was recently in the news in another death hoax, the subject of a trending TikTok prank. Angela…

Did "adverse vaccine reaction" become the leading cause of U.S. deaths in 2021 and 2022? No, that's not true: Adverse vaccine reactions are not a categorical cause of death tracked by health officials. Also, the vaccination status and records of deceased individuals are not tracked. In both 2021 and 2022, experts told Lead Stories that the leading cause of death…

Did the COVID-19 vaccine cause Canadian reporter Jessica Robb to stumble on air? No, there's no evidence that's true: Robb, a CTV News journalist who appeared to suffer a medical emergency while reporting live on air, has said that what happened was "in no way related to the COVID-19 vaccine." She added: "While I will not share private medical information…

Did activist Liam Coward die as a result of the COVID-19 vaccine? No, there's no evidence that's true: Although the exact cause of Coward's sudden passing is not known, there is nothing to indicate it had anything to do with the vaccine. His partner said that Coward suffered a "tragic accident" on December 30, 2022, and was placed in a…

Does an article listing 1,616 "athlete collapses and deaths" between January 2021 and December 2022 prove a connection between these mishaps and the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: While the article documents scores of "athletes" who have died or collapsed for various reasons (some of them clearly non-cardiac in nature, like cancer, suicide, drug overdose or accidents), their vaccine…

Does a new study claim that artificial sweeteners are to blame for "soaring rates of heart attacks and sudden deaths the past two years"? No, that's not true: The study does not suggest any such link but instead says "The findings ... suggest a potential direct association between higher artificial sweetener consumption ... and increased cardiovascular disease risk." The U.S.…

Have COVID-19 vaccine rollouts increased "sudden deaths" in Germany by four times? No, that's not true: The claim misuses billing data to make medical claims, according to the chairman of the board of the doctors who provide health under the national system and Germany's federal institute for vaccines and biomedicines The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by…

Did country singer Jake Flint die from COVID-19 or complications related to the COVID-19 vaccine, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Flint's publicist told Lead Stories that Flint's death was not related to the vaccine or the virus, and that his two vaccinations were more than a year before his death. The implied claim appeared in…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "quietly" confirm in late 2022 that at least 118,000 children and young adults have "died suddenly" in the U.S. since rollout of COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: Experts told Lead Stories that excess death data has been publicly published by the CDC since COVID was declared a pandemic in March…

Did 80 Canadian doctors die after being vaccinated for COVID-19? No, that's not true: As of December 12, 2022, there had been no COVID vaccine caused deaths - of doctors or non-doctors - in Canada, according to the national public health agency. The claim was made with no evidence that the vaccines caused any physician deaths. Publicly available information shows…