Legal analyst and TV personality Midwin Charles died an untimely death on Wednesday, April 7, her family announced in a post on Twitter. She was 47.
Shortly after the announcement of Charles' death, an image of a tweet shared by the CNN/MSNBC analyst stating that she "just got vaccinated" started circulating on Twitter.
'Just Got Vaccinated'
"Just got vaccinated (qualified because of my asthma) at a FEMA center. Everyone at the site is in uniform. It's good to see our service men and women! Process was organized, efficient, and everyone is kind and in a good mood. Let's do this!," the tweet read.
The tweet and the lack of details about the cause of Charles' death led anti-vax conspiracy theorists to push rumors on social media that she died as a result of the COVID-19 jab.
"Amazing how a prominent black defense attorney, not even 50 years old, who has appeared and given legal commentary on numerous networks, can die without any reporting from the media she worked with. Charles had recently taking the C19 vaccine," wrote one user.
Here are some of the other tweets:
Charles Did, In Fact, Receive the Pfizer Jab in March
We decided to investigate the claims and started by combing through Charles Twitter timeline for tweets dated 1st March 2021 and found the tweet in which she announced her vaccination.
Two days later, Charles responded to a user's question about which vaccine she got, to say that she, like many others, had experienced mild side effects that had since subsided.
While it is true that Charles is among the 63 million vaccinated Americans and did receive the Pfizer vaccine on March 1, five weeks before her unexpected demise, there is no evidence to suggest that the vaccine or its side effects contributed to her death.
This is not the first time anti-vaxxers have tried to establish a link between a celebrity's death and the coronavirus vaccine. Earlier this year, baseball legend Hank Aaron, died at the age of 86, 17 days after being administered the Pfizer vaccine. Conspiracy theorists immediately seized the opportunity to push the claim that he died after suffering a reaction to the vaccine. The claim was later debunked by the New York Times.
