Fact Check: Twenty-Year-Old Woman Did NOT Die After Receiving COVID Vaccine — It Was After Shot Not Related To COVID
Did a 20-year-old woman from Kansas die shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine? No, that’s not true: Although Regan Lewis did experience cardiac arrest and die shortly after receiving a vaccine, Regan’s mother Connie Lewis clarified that the vaccine was not for COVID after mistakenly saying so previously. There is also no confirmation that Regan’s cardiac arrest and subsequent death were related to the vaccine she actually received, which was the third dose of Gardasil 9, which protects against some strains of human papillomavirus.
The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) published on December 12, 2022. The tweet included a screenshot of a Facebook post from Connie Lewis, which stated that her daughter Regan Lewis went into cardiac arrest after receiving a COVID vaccine. The tweet was captioned:
RIP she passed away 😔 #DiedSuddendly #StoptheShots #ProsecuteFauci
This is how the tweet looked at the time this fact check was written:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Wed Dec 14 21:34:46 2022 UTC)
What the tweet failed to mention was that although Connie Lewis’ original Facebook post did state that Regan received a COVID vaccine right before her death, Connie updated the post to clarify that she made a mistake and that the vaccine was actually Gardasil 9. These screenshots from the edit history of the post tell the entire story.
The original post was made on September 27, 2022:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Dec 14 22:06:54 2022 UTC)
Connie edited the post again on September 27, 2022, and on October 3, 2022, stating in the latter update that the vaccine was a “jab” rather than specifically saying that it was a COVID-19 vaccine shot:
(Source: Facebook screenshots taken on Wed Dec 14 22:07:45 2022 UTC and Wed Dec 14 22:09:12 2022 UTC [left to right], displayed in composite image)
Connie edited the post two more times on October 17, 2022, explaining that she wasn’t sure there was a link between the vaccine Regan received and her death:
(Source: Facebook screenshots taken on Wed Dec 14 22:09:55 2022 UTC and Wed Dec 14 22:10:33 2022 UTC [left to right], displayed in composite image)
At the time of writing, the last time Connie Lewis updated the post was on November 13, 2022. In it, she explained that the vaccine Regan received was Gardasil 9.
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Dec 14 22:11:06 2022 UTC)
The tweet making the claim was posted a month after Connie Lewis clarified that Regan did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine immediately before her death. Therefore, it is relying on information that was already explained to be untrue by Regan’s mother.
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