Fact Check: COVID-19 Vaccines Are NOT Causing 'Young And Fit Women Under 40' To Die From Blood Clots

Fact Check

  • by: Alexis Tereszcuk
Fact Check: COVID-19 Vaccines Are NOT Causing 'Young And Fit Women Under 40' To Die From Blood Clots No Connection

Are "young and fit women under 40" dying from blood clots that are caused by the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: The screengrab of the article posted is missing the context -- that the article was about a study in Scotland that ended before COVID vaccines were available to the public.

The claim appeared in an Instagram post by Robby Starbuck, a former candidate for political office in Tennessee, on June 1, 2022. It opens:

Young and fit women under 40 are increasingly dying of a sudden killer disease... Blood clots. Hmm let's all think hard about why that might be happening... 🤔
This is what the post looked like on Instagram on June 2, 2022:
image (70).png
(Source: Instagram screenshot taken on Thurs Jun 2 13:28:12 2022 UTC)

Starbuck used a screenshot of an article in the New York Post for his Instagram post. The Post article is from The Sun in the United Kingdom. The post implies that COVID vaccines were to blame for women's deaths.

The actual article doesn't mention COVID vaccines and explains what time periods were studied:

There were a total of 73 deaths in under 40-year-old women between 2002 and 2006 where a blood clot was the underlying cause.

This rose to 81 in the five years leading up to the COVID pandemic, The Herald reported.

This was despite a drop to 44 deaths between 2008 and 2012.

Although the numbers are small, they do not fit with the overall trend for women of all ages.

There were 684 deaths from blood clots in the female population in 2002, which almost halved to 361 in 2019.

The figure jumped up again in 2020, to 446, in relation to the Covid pandemic, as the coronavirus can cause blood clotting.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:

Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here.


  Alexis Tereszcuk

Alexis Tereszcuk is a writer and fact checker at Lead Stories and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade breaking hard news and celebrity scoop with RadarOnline and Us Weekly.

As the Entertainment Editor, she investigated Hollywood stories and conducted interviews with A-list celebrities and reality stars.  

Alexis’ crime reporting earned her spots as a contributor on the Nancy Grace show, CNN, Fox News and Entertainment Tonight, among others.

Read more about or contact Alexis Tereszcuk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization EFCSN Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion