Right Wing Media Alive with Bogus Stories of Jab-Related Sudden Death

By Kevin Howley, February 19, 2023

“Florida is where woke goes to die.” So says Ron – “Wouldn’t you like to know” if I’m running for president – DeSantis.

Regular readers of right wing media know damn well that woke isn’t the only thing on death’s door. According to conservative news outlets and affiliated media hysterics, if you’ve been on the receiving end of a Covid jab, you’re one heartbeat away from eternity.

That goes double if you’re an athlete, or under 30. Consider this item from the Daily Wire: “Covid Vaccine Brings Higher Heart Risk, Little Benefit to Young Men, Medical Expert Warns.” Other stories don’t mention vaccines, but express incredulity over untimely deaths. Gateway Pundit recently offered such a story: “34-Year Old Border Patrol Intel Agent Dies Suddenly Due to ‘Unexpected and Sudden Heart Attack.’”

Of course, headlines like this are click bait for right wing media’s core demographic: white, middle-aged, conspiracy-addled conservatives who swallow MAGA talking points like so many blood-pressure pills.

Correlation or causation? You be the judge.

Sudden Death Overtime

A recent story in American Thinker typifies the conspiratorial quality of conservative reporting: “So Many People Recently ‘Died Suddenly’ – What’s Going On?” Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., writes, “A new and increasingly popular Twitter hashtag is #diedsuddenly in response to a surge of sudden unexplained deaths among mostly young and healthy individuals, including athletes, occurring over the past two years.”

A serious man of science who just happens to take his cues from trending hashtags, Dr. Joondeph concedes that anecdotal reports of the sudden death of athletes and soldiers “while compelling are not the same as collected data.” Joondeph then cites the work of “several brave researchers” whose study is featured on [your] NEWS, a conservative website as trustworthy as its name suggests.

Funny thing about that story, headlined, “Study Finds Athlete Deaths are 1700% Higher Than Expected Since Covid-19 Vaccination Began.” The research examining Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD) in sport doesn’t mention Covid much less vaccines. Not once. Rather, the study aimed to develop preparticipation screening protocols for athletes for the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

In short, when they’re not chiding legitimate research as junk science, right wing media cherry pick data and twist valid scientific findings to fit their narrow (minded) political objectives.

Here We Go Again

Last summer, the Daily Caller’s coverage of the Biden administration’s response to a public health emergency included dismissive headlines like this: “Here We Go Again: Biden’s CDC Recommends Masks for Monkeypox.” More recently, a headline from WND reads “Here We Go Again! Yellen Pushes a Debt-Limit Crisis.” Meanwhile, Hot Air routinely publishes screeds like this: “Here We Go Again: Ag Sec Vilsack Announces New Nutrition Standards for School Meals.” Will these monsters stop at nothing?

Conservative pundits and headline editors are fond of using the phrase “Here we go again” as shorthand for venting their contempt for “Big Government,” “the radical left agenda,” and “organizational wokeness,” among other targets of right wing ridicule.

It’s a clever device for signaling disdain for one thing or another that liberals just keep doing, no matter how hard conservatives try to show them the error of their ways. Fair enough. But what are we to make of right wing media’s morbid fascination with sudden death?

The awful truth is that people die every day. And yes, tragically, young people perish suddenly and unexpectedly. Nonetheless, conservative outlets are giving sudden death the “man bites dog treatment.” Don’t take my word for it. Right wing hysteria is hiding in plain sight.

Community Morns Sudden Death of 16-Year Old Athlete: A Kind and Gentle Soul – Breitbart, 22 Oct 2022

Megyn Kelly Announces Her Sister Died Suddenly of a Heart Attack – Daily Caller, 24 Oct 2022

Fighters React to Stephan Bonnar’s Sudden Death at 45: ‘Changed the Landscape of the Sport’ – Fox News, 25 Dec 2022.

Former NFL Player Jessie Lemonier Dies Suddenly at 25 – Daily Caller, 26 Jan 2023.

Larry Coyer, Former Broncos Defensive Coordinator, Dead at 79, From “Sudden Illness” – Fox News, 11 Feb 2023.

TRAGIC: 17-Year Old Football Player Dies Suddenly in His Sleep Following a “Cardiac Arrest” – Gateway Pundit, 13 Feb. 2023.

There’s a common thread here. Sudden death, celebrity news, and football player hero worship. Heck, it’s one of the few times right wing media bothers to notice when an otherwise young and healthy African-American man dies tragically. Go figure.

Then there’s the calculated use of scare quotes around phrases like “sudden illness” and “cardiac arrest,” hinting at a far more sinister explanation for the fact that people of all ages occasionally drop dead.

Items like this, again from Fox, enhance the conspiratorial flavor of such reporting: “Second Sudden Death of Top Official Reported in Russia’s Military Supply Chain in Less Than a Week.” BTW the “top official” in question died in a military hospital. He was 70.

The GOP Death Cult

For a party of pro-lifers, the GOP fascination with death reveals something of their collective psyche. Life begins at inception, but once you exit the womb and are out in the world, you’re on your own kid.

When lives are cut short, there must be a reason. The more conspiratorial the better for the GOP death cult. What gets left out of sudden death reporting are the more banal, but far more consequential facts of life in these United States.

The extortionate cost of health care is a formidable obstacle when people who should see a doctor can’t afford it. Then there’s the stress of living in a so-called free society that puts second amendment rights above the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Factor in low wage jobs, the lack of affordable housing, and the ill-effects of an American diet consisting of excess sodium, saturated fats, fructose and added sugar and perhaps we can understand why heart disease is a leading cause of death in this country.

But for the right wing noise machine, the structural and policy reasons behind sudden death are either dismissed out of hand, or deflected by conspiracy theories about public health measures, like masks and vaccines, that actually save lives.

In the end, media hysteria of this sort, purposely designed to undermine public confidence in health campaigns and directives, is a recipe for disaster when, not if, the next pandemic emerges.

Kevin Howley is a writer and educator whose work has appeared in Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Social Movement Studies, and Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. His most recent book is Drones: Media Discourse and the Public Imagination.

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