The Claim:
An anti-vax physician tweeter (who frequently attempts to link the COVID-19 vaccine to individual cases of people dying suddenly or emerging with new health conditions) is at it again. This time, he’s trying to claim a link between the COVID vaccine and a teenager who had a stroke in November 2022.
The Facts:
In a series of tweets, this author suggests the COVID vaccines are linked to a number of cardiac events, strokes, and deaths.
In this particular tweet, our tweeter attempts to support his claim by highlighting an article about a young middle school student who suffered a stroke. However, if you look at the article itself, it reports that the stroke was a result of a virus called Focal cerebral Arteriopathy (FCA). There is no mention of the COVID vaccine.
There is a name for this tactic of using loads of individually weak examples to overwhelm the reader: it’s called a gish gallop. When you start to look at the examples individually (like this teenage stroke example) and the underlying claim (COVID vaccines cause new health conditions), it often falls apart.
Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved since this was originally posted. Browse the latest information posted in Just the Facts Topics.
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