Misinformation on 27-year-old Sydney man’s Covid-19 death spreads on social media

Misinformation surrounding the death of 27-year-old Sydney man Aude ‘Ady’ Alaskar is circulating in Arabic WhatsApp groups, while conspiracy-filled Instagram and Facebook pages are trying to convince their followers the young man did not die of Covid-19.

Authorities confirmed Alaskar was not vaccinated against Covid-19 and contracted the virus from his wife, an aged care worker. The forklift driver from Warwick Farm, in south-west Sydney, died on his 13th day of isolation after deteriorating suddenly.

The New South Wales chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, told reporters on Tuesday that he had no underlying conditions.

“He did complain of feeling a little fatigued but the deterioration happened suddenly is my understanding,” she said.

Since his death, misinformation seeking to minimise Covid-19’s role in his death has spread through various social media and messaging apps.

A message being shared through WhatsApp groups claims his family have a history of heart conditions that contributed to his death.

The message, written in Arabic, says he was “90% healthy” before collapsing around 4pm and dying of a heart attack.

It is unclear whether the message actually comes from the man’s family or is fake, but its contents have been picked up by influencers and meme pages, promoting the idea that the man didn’t test positive and did not die of Covid-19.

Maria Zee, an influencer with over 10,000 followers, posted a live video to her Instagram on Wednesday night, making baseless and bizarre claims, including that Alaskar had come back to life and medical staff “destroyed the paperwork”.

Refusing to mention Covid-19 by name – referring to it only as “C O so and so” – she also claimed to have received a note from Alaskar that shares his “experience” and wrongly blames his death on pneumonia.

Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, has repeatedly stated that it is taking strong action to prevent misinformation about Covid-19 spreading.

In a statement issued on Thursday, NSW Health said people with Covid-19 can develop myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.

“Myocarditis and pericarditis can be caused by many conditions including autoimmune conditions, viruses and bacteria, certain cancers and certain medications,” a spokesperson said.

“People who get sick with Covid-19 can develop myocarditis and pericarditis. There is insufficient evidence available to determine whether people who contract the Delta variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 have a different risk of developing myocarditis and/or pericarditis compared with the original virus or other variants.”

Speaking generally, Prof Peter Collignon, an infectious diseases expert at Australian National University, said recent studies in New York suggested Covid-19 may be associated with some forms of sudden death, though it remained a very rare event.

Much of the commentary on Alaskar’s death, and others, appears to be driven by a form of binary thinking: that if someone who died of Covid-19 also had another underlying condition, then the virus must not have been the ultimate cause of death.

“Having a binary view of this is counter-productive,” Collignon said.

Misinformation about the cause of Alaskar’s death and conspiracy theories linking his death to government strategies to boost the vaccine rollout also circulated on Facebook.

A post in an Auburn community Facebook page repeated the misinformation about an underlying heart condition being responsible for Alaskar’s death.

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The misinformation was further amplified in Facebook comment sections, including on news articles announcing the death.

A man claiming to be Alaskar’s cousin wrote there is a “history” of heart conditions in the family and denied he died of Covid-19.

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