Fact Check: Hank Aaron
On January 5, 2021, Hank Aaron received the first Moderna COVID-19 shot, saying he was doing so in order "to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe."1 On January 17, 2021, he died.
Many have pointed out the irony of a seemingly healthy man dying shortly after receiving the injection at an event designed to overcome public suspicions that the experimental treatment may not have yet been adequately tested in humans.
One such person who is repeatedly mentioned in this context is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose Children's Health Defense organization posted a report on Aaron's death that included the fact that he had received the vaccine 18 days earlier. That report is difficult to find; it has been alluded to in a vast number of critical blogs and news articles, but never referenced directly. You can find it here.
In order to properly inform you of the facts relating to Mr. Aaron's death, outlets such as the New York Times included items like this:
- "Now, anti-vaccine activists, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, are seizing on his death to suggest — without evidence — that there might be a link."
- "The Fulton County medical examiner has also said there was nothing to suggest that Mr. Aaron had an allergic or anaphylactic reaction related to the vaccine."
Regarding the first point, use of the term seizing on his death is designed to evoke an emotional reaction while not providing any factual context. It elicits visions of a desperate attempt to deny reality in order to profit from a deception. That assessment would probably more appropriately describe the New York Times than Mr. Kennedy, as you'll see in the analysis of the second point, below.
If you read Kennedy's article, you will find that he does not conclude that the shot was the cause of death, he only makes the observation that it was part of a wave of suspicious post-vaccine deaths. Most people who have been aware of the numerous reports of deaths and injuries would have the same reaction. There is, of course, "no evidence" that the shot caused his death, nor will there ever be any. It would take an extensive postmortem examination to even suggest that might be the case. By the same logic, though, there is also "no evidence" that his death was not caused by the shot.
The second point is more convincing. Having the medical examiner find that the inoculation had no bearing on his death after an extensive postmortem examination of his body is pretty conclusive evidence and should put to rest any conjecture of such a link.
So can we agree that, at least in Hank Aaron's case, he simply "died in his sleep" of natural causes as all the fact-checking articles conclude?
Well, for whatever reason, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. contacted the medical examiner in question to get just a little more detail on their findings (not that he was suspicious or anything.) Here is their statement:
—Fulton County Coroner's Office
One can only conjecture how the Times came up with the statement they attributed to the medical examiner. Maybe it was an assumption because the examiner declined to examine the body, or maybe because someone heard it from a janitor; they just don't say.
So understand that you're in the habit of accept the wordsmithing of the New York Times (and other media outlets) at face value, you will be completely misled, as are the vast majority of people every day. Whether or not he died because of the injection, we'll never know. But what we do know is that big media won't allow us to see anything that contradicts their narrative.
New York Times story:
Cached Copy - in case you don't have paid access or if they modify their page later.
