Excess mortality of footballers due to vaccination, a persistent infox
Audio 03:09
The effects of the vaccine misinformation campaign were particularly felt in the UK among Premier League players.
Here, a game between the clubs Watford and West Ham United, in Watford, England on December 28, 2021. © AP - David Cliff
By: Sophie Malibeaux |
Grégory Genevrier Follow
4 min
The world of football has been the target of a vast campaign of disinformation in recent weeks.
On social networks, some claim that the vaccine is at the origin of a considerable increase in the number of heart problems and deaths among players.
A persistent infox in particular conveyed by two candidates for the presidential election.
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This theory has been very popular for several months on the networks and continues to be updated.
She claims that there have never been so many footballers with heart problems as in 2021 and that the Covid-19 vaccine is the only culprit.
This infox appears in different forms every week.
The most shared are lists containing hundreds of names of players who have died as a result of heart disease.
Always allegedly caused by the vaccine.
Some evoke a 500% increase in heart deaths among footballers, while others suggest an increase of 278%.
Articles conveying this type of infox.
© Screenshots / Websites / Montage RFI
Today, there is no evidence that footballers are more victims of ailments or cardiac arrests.
During the incidents mentioned in these publications, there is nothing to make the link with vaccination.
These figures, which are not based on any reliable database, are therefore completely false.
Contacted by AFP, the commission in charge of the "
register of sudden cardiac deaths
" in football, attached to Fifa, declares that there are "
no more deaths among footballers than before the pandemic
”.
“I don't see so many vaccinated athletes coming to see me with heart complications.
»Marc Rozenblat, President of the National Union of Sports and Health Physicians.
For Dr. Marc Rozenblat, president of the National Union of Sports and Health Physicians (SNMS), these figures do not correspond to reality.
“
We have observed, among athletes, probably because they have more rigorous medical monitoring than the rest of the population, cardiac complications such as myocarditis and pericarditis, linked to disease and vaccination.
But this mentioned increase is false information.
I don't see so many vaccinated athletes coming to see me with heart complications.
"
For its part, the Ministry of Sports affirms that "
the sports cardiologists questioned do not find a higher incidence in athletes than in the general population
".
Moreover, when we closely examine the cases of heart problems cited in these infox, we realize that the vaccine is never designated as responsible.
Some took place before the start of vaccination, and footballers were not even vaccinated at the time of the facts.
This is the case of the Danish Christian Eriksen whose discomfort on June 12, 2021 in the middle of the Euro match against Finland had moved the football world.
An infox popular with anti-vaxes
Recently, Florian Philippot and François Asselineau, two presidential candidates in France, shared this infox.
The first used the death of an Algerian D2 player on Saturday, December 25 to incriminate the vaccine.
However, Sofiane Loukar died of a head trauma.
So nothing to do with vaccination.
Another athlete who dies of a heart attack in the middle of a game: it's a massacre!
"His medical record was perfect."
When will you see truth and transparency ?!
https://t.co/qwta1TTUiv
- Florian Philippot (@f_philippot) December 26, 2021
François Asselineau shared with him a pseudo statistical survey published on an anti-vax site.
She claims that one in 600 players would risk a heart problem after injection.
Problem, the author is based on data provided by Transfermarket, a site listing players' transfers and sometimes their injuries, but without any medical expertise.
Unreliable data and above all, never mentioning the vaccine.
📊FACTUAL ANALYSIS
▪️there have never been so many footballers with heart problems as in 2021
▪️ we cannot exclude that mRNA injections are the cause
▪️in this case, around 1 football player / 600 would risk a pb cardiac after injection https://t.co/waOnlYZsaD pic.twitter.com/AWVqCzdEW0
- François Asselineau (@UPR_Asselineau) December 27, 2021
Demonize the vaccine
This instrumentalisation of tragic events by the anti-vax conspiratorial sphere aims to demonize the vaccine and to instill doubt in unvaccinated athletes.
The effects of this disinformation campaign were particularly felt in the United Kingdom among Premier League players.
Admittedly, the vaccine can cause, in rare cases, heart problems, as is the case for Moderna which is now not recommended for children under 30, but the balance between benefits and risks remains positive.
Remember that cardiac arrests in athletes are often linked to so-called silent genetic diseases.
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