Public health institutions around the world point out that vaccines against covid-19 are effective in preventing serious cases and death from the disease, but since November 2022 an alleged documentary has been promoted on social networks that state that vaccination is part of a “population reduction conspiracy”. Specialists consider that the material misinforms and provides false data and misleading and unsubstantiated information about covid-19 and its treatment.
“Died Suddenly… The documentary focuses, for the first 20 minutes, on findings that have been found by many embalmers in different parts of the world: blood clots atypical in size, texture, and location, not seen before in years”, read posts on Facebook
According to users, the "documentary" also shows "several cases of famous people who died 'suddenly' after being vaccinated, or of some athletes who had to leave their sport due to heart problems" .
The film was released on November 21, 2022, on the Rumble platform. Users of Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and TikTok also share the material, which has also been promoted in media outlets that tend to spread misinformation. The film was also uploaded to the Odysee and BitChute platforms.
"For centuries, the global elite have broadcast their intentions to depopulate the world to the point of setting them in stone," reads the description of the film in Rumble. “And yet… we never seem to believe them. The Stew Peters Network is proud to present DIED SUDDENLY, from award-winning filmmakers Matthew Skow and Nicholas Stumphauzer,” they add.
Peters is the host of the American talk show “The Stew Peters Show”, which has spread conspiracy theories and misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccination that have already been debunked by the AFP fact-finding team in the United States.
Of the film, Susan Oliver, Ph.D. scientist in nanomedicine, commented in a November 27 tweet: “A better name for the latest controversial anti-vaccine documentary Died Suddenly would be Lied Suddenly, because there are lies everywhere. ”
Misinformation about excess deaths
In the pandemic context, excess mortality is calculated as the difference between the number of deaths that have occurred and the number that would be expected in the absence of the health crisis, based on data from previous years.
But in "Died suddenly" the information on deaths is manipulated to attribute the excess deaths that were recorded in several countries during the pandemic to covid-19 vaccines.
"If the goal was to reduce the world's population, it's working," says Peter McCulloug, a cardiologist in the film who is being considered by the American Board of Internal Medicine to have his certifications revoked because of his public statements "about the alleged dangers and lack of substantiation" of vaccines against covid-19" and from whom AFP Factual has already verified false claims.
The film also features Theresa M. Long, a United States Army surgeon who claims that vaccines against covid-19 are a "biological weapon launched against humanity with the intention of depopulating and controlling the world's population." In the past, Long has claimed that the vaccine is made with antifreeze.
On her Twitter account, epidemiologist Katrine Wallace described the film as disinformation and stated that vaccines against covid-19 have saved millions of lives. She also refuted the “Died suddenly” argument that since vaccination against the disease in 2021, deaths from heart attacks have skyrocketed.
Using data from the Cardiac Arrest to Improve Survival ( CARES ) Registry, Wallace explained how sudden arrest was more common in the United States in 2020, before vaccines were available and when the pandemic was in full swing.
Although there has been an increase in the excess of sudden deaths worldwide since that year, according to data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Our World In Data platform, and experts consulted According to the AFP, there is no evidence that it is the fault of the vaccines.
Frank Yanfeng Han, a specialist in pediatric cardiology at the Northwestern Medicine medical center in Chicago, cited a study that compared the death figures of Sweden and Norway and found more cases related to complications from covid-19 in Sweden, a country that imposed fewer sanitary measures to fight the pandemic.
The expert told AFP on November 23, 2022, that in the UK long waits for ambulances and emergency care for heart conditions had also contributed to excess deaths.
In an article from the Pan American Health Organization published in May 2022, it is explained that excess mortality during the pandemic "includes deaths directly associated with COVID-19 (due to the disease) or indirectly (due to the impact of the pandemic in health systems and in society)”. And it is explained that deaths indirectly linked to the disease are attributed to other health conditions related to access to prevention and treatment in a context in which health systems were overloaded.
News taken out of context
The film suggests that the cases of sudden death presented are related to the covid-19 vaccines, but no evidence is provided to show that these deaths were the result of immunization.
"Someone mentioned going to Google and typing 'died suddenly' and news articles started popping up… There's a whole list of people, articles about people who have died suddenly in the last week, young people, old people, but a lot of young people all over the world, famous people, athletes who have just died without explanation”, comments Chad Whisnant, director of the American funeral home Pittman Funeral Homes, in the film.
In the film, there are headlines of various news stories about sudden deaths that occurred in the United States, but the covid-19 vaccination is not mentioned nor if those who had died had even been vaccinated.
For example, one article refers to the death of a 13-year-old boy in Michigan, who died days after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. However, local media reported that after a forensic and medical autopsy, no relationship to immunization was found.
Other news alludes to a young man who died in a car accident, another to the death of South Korean illustrator Kim Jung Gi and one to the death of a physiologist from Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. In none of these cases is the covid-19 vaccine even mentioned.
When Whisnant mentions the unexpected deaths of celebrities, footage of baseball player Hank Aaron receiving his immunization appears in the film. However, a coroner and the Morehouse School of Medicine, where the athlete was vaccinated, confirmed to AFP in 2021 that his death was not related to vaccination against covid-19.
AFP Factual has already verified that the covid-19 vaccines are not linked to sudden cardiac deaths, nor with other types of deaths or sudden deaths in children and adolescents.
"Unusual Clots"
In "Died suddenly" there are also testimonies from embalmers and morticians who say they have found "unusual clots" in the bodies of the deceased.
Richard Hirschman, a licensed embalmer from Alabama, USA, told AFP Factual in October 2022 that he is "neither a doctor nor a scientist".
The film also features testimony from John O'Looney, a UK undertaker who has in the past spread misinformation about the pandemic, and Brenton Faithfull, another New Zealand undertaker, who falsely linked the deaths of their clients with covid-19 vaccines.
The AFP has also verified that there is no relationship between alleged abnormal clots found in corpses and immunization and the specialists consulted clarified that the presence of clots in the blood can be due to multiple causes, such as obesity, smoking, or COVID infection itself.
"The blood coagulation process gives rise to a relatively nonspecific form of clot (thrombus)," explained Dr. David Dorward, a professor at the University of Edinburgh and a specialist in cellular and molecular mechanisms.
“Usually by looking at the clot it is impossible to tell what caused it. For example, a blood clot from a patient who had clots caused by covid infection, compared to those that form as a result of prolonged bed rest after a major operation, would look virtually identical and no scientist could say which is which one”, said Ignacio Silva, infectologist and member of the External Advisory Council of the Chilean Ministry of Health. He has also explained to AFP that cases of vaccine-related blood clot adverse events are very rare.
On the other hand, the French Association of Thanatopraxia (AFT) also clarified to AFP that the embalmers carry out acts of conservation of the bodies, such as sterilization of the arteries, but they do not "take samples" of blood and, in general, they do not know the causes of death.
In addition, the film shows a scene taken out of context to "prove" the clot theory. In the 53rd minute, an embalmer comments: "I think the only way a doctor would see this on the body is if they actually entered the body." Then images of the alleged extraction of a clot from a heart are shown.
However, the video shows the removal of a pulmonary embolism in a living patient. The problem is the video shown in the falseumentary was published on YouTube in April 2019, before the pandemic.
Not related to newborn deaths
In “Died Suddenly”, they also claim that covid-19 vaccines are linked to newborn deaths and expose a statistical analysis showing that there were more than 80 cases of stillbirth in a short period of time in Waterloo, Canada.
AFP Factual has already verified the claims about unusual increases in baby deaths in Canada, in July 2022. Local officials and obstetric specialists denied that information.
Victoria Male, Professor of Reproductive Immunology at Imperial College London, reviewed 30 studies in eight countries that focus on the safety of getting vaccinated against covid-19 during pregnancy. She found no risk of increased stillbirth.
The Pan American Health Organization has also recommended vaccination against covid-19 for pregnant women. “Vaccines have proven to be one of the most effective public health interventions. When it comes to immunizations during pregnancy, the peculiarity is that two people are protected with a single vaccine”, she explains.
“Died suddenly” also shows a Pfizer study provided by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that purportedly shows that more than 80% of pregnant women who participated in a clinical trial by the pharmaceutical company had miscarriages. However, the information from that study was misinterpreted and taken out of context.
AFP Factual verified that the reports cited by the FDA do not mention any supposed dangers of the vaccines for pregnant women.
In the publications on social networks that promote the falseumentary there is also a reference to conspiracy theories that allude to plans for "global depopulation" through vaccines and the responsibility that US billionaire Bill Gates bears in this. AFP Factual has already verified these false claims
