Vaccine Didn't Kill a Man in California

The New York Post has shared an article headlined “Californian dies hours after getting COVID-19 vaccine”, which has been largely shared on social media. The news was first shared on Facebook by The Placer County Sheriff’s Office. The man who died was suffering from COVID-19 since December 2020. The Sheriff’s Office further mentions that their public health system did not administer the vaccine to the man and they do not know which vaccine was taken. Although the man died hours after receiving the vaccine, a cause of death has not yet been reported and is still being investigated. Dr. Dean Blumberg, an infectious disease expert at UC Davis Children’s hospital says people will link the death to the vaccine because of the timing, however, they shouldn’t be too quick to blame.

Blumberg believes the death is not related to the vaccine since the vast majority of severe allergic reactions that occur following immunization do so within 15-30 minutes of immunization, not hours. Blumberg says that if it happened several hours later it is “probably not the severe allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, that we worry about.” A recommendation from Dr. Anthony Fauci is that people who had COVID-19 should wait 90 days after infection before they get vaccinated. The article headline has spread fear-mongering, disinformation and does not reflect the true content of the article. The irresponsible headline may mislead members of the public to think the vaccine is fatal, rather than a lifesaver. There is also no information on age or underlying health conditions that could have contributed to his death. It simply implies the man’s cause of death is due to the vaccine despite it still being under investigation and therefore the Misbar team classifies this news as misleading