Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has found a new conspiracy theory to peddle about the effective and safe COVID-19 vaccines: that somehow, uncovered by the media, and silenced by government health officials, hordes of athletes are dropping dead on the field after getting the jab.
First things first: They’re not.
Johnson, the U.S. Senate’s resident COVID-19 truther, went on right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s show this week to repeat some of his most dangerous talking points about the vaccines — namely his concern about deaths related to receiving a shot.
Johnson falsely told Kirk that there have been 22,000 deaths related to the vaccine — a number that appears to come from an inaccurate and misleading report from anti-vaccine advocates that draws from an official public government database where anyone can report adverse health effects from vaccines.
Heartland Signal on X (formerly Twitter): “Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) falsely tells Charlie Kirk that there have been 22,000 deaths associated with coronavirus vaccines and that “all these athletes are dropping dead on the field.” (???) pic.twitter.com/6RK6ho6y36 / X”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) falsely tells Charlie Kirk that there have been 22,000 deaths associated with coronavirus vaccines and that “all these athletes are dropping dead on the field.” (???) pic.twitter.com/6RK6ho6y36
Then Johnson repeated a persistent conspiracy theory from anti-vaccine activists that professional athletes are literally dropping dead on the field because of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The Faucis of the world are just blowing it all off, the Biden administration [says] nothing to see here,” Johnson said. “Of course we’ve heard story after story, I mean, all these athletes dropping dead on the field. But we are supposed to ignore that.”
