NBA coach’s death sparks COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories

The news of Golden State Warriors Assistant Coach Dejan Milojević dying on Wednesday following a heart attack has sparked a wave of unfounded conspiracy theories that his death was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine.

Milojević, 46, passed away on Wednesday morning after suffering a heart attack the night before at a private team dinner, the Warriors announced in a statement.

The Serbia native was hospitalized in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday. The NBA postponed Wednesday’s scheduled game between the Warriors and Utah Jazz after learning of the “medical emergency in the Warriors family.”

“We are absolutely devastated by Dejan’s sudden passing,” Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr said in a statement. “This is a shocking and tragic blow for everyone associated with the Warriors and an incredibly difficult time for his family, friends, and all of us who had the incredible pleasure to work with him.”

“In addition to being a terrific basketball coach, Dejan was one of the most positive and beautiful human beings I have ever known, someone who brought joy and light to every single day with his passion and energy,” the statement said. “We grieve with and for his wife, Natasa, and their children, Nikola and Masa. Their loss is unfathomable.”

As fans flocked to social media to mourn Milojević’s death, there was an immediate wave of cynicism from a number of vaccine skeptics.

Newsweek reached out to representatives of the Golden State Warriors for comment.

Claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause health problems or increase the chance of death are often made by groups opposed to vaccination and used in conspiracy theories concerning supposed population control.

Anti-vaccination activists have attempted to link deaths among athletes and other notable figures to being vaccinated—especially those who otherwise appeared healthy before having a cardiac arrest. The phrase “died suddenly” has become a dog whistle for such assertions.

Linking Milojević to such unfounded claims, Toby Rogers, a political economist associated with the anti-COVID-vaccine movement, took aim at Kerr in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“@SteveKerr was a big supporter of the Covid vaccine. Now his assistant coach, Dejan Milojević, is dead. 46, previously fit and healthy,” Rogers wrote. “Anyone who received a Covid shot should immediately begin a post-vaccine treatment protocol. Kerr should be arrested.”

An X user wrote: “Well like I said, in 4 to 5 years we will start seeing more and more healthy young people dying from this vaccine. Trust me there is going to be a lot more coming. Be prepared!”

“This have anything to do with the… #ChinaVirus #Jab #COVID-19 @Pfizer.” another person said on X. “Crazy all sports figures and multiple people with multiple different jobs. Get that nasty #vaccine and now look.”

“PSEUDO VACCINE mRNA- ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST !?!?” a skeptic wrote. “Every athlete must demand a complete, detail physical immediately and stop all physical exertion! The end of sports? Millions have died! More to come.”

Amid the onslaught of unfounded speculation, a number of other X users hit back, with one wryly responding to Rogers’ post: “Before COVID no one younger than 47 died.”

Another person commented that “the amount of people making this GSW coach’s medical situation about the vaccine is sickening. I mean this genuinely: f*** anybody who makes this situation about the Covid vaccine. And rest in peace to Dejan Milojevič. Condolences to his family.”

“We’re really gonna have to hear about the f****** vaccine anytime someone dies for the rest of our lives, huh?” an X user asked Rogers.

“A new level of insanity,” another said regarding Rogers’ post. “Not even Golden State fans would go this far to hate on Kerr.”

As of April 2023, approximately 366,905,365 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in the United States, according to Statista. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describes the two mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna as “safe and effective.”

The mRNA technology used to create the vaccines had been in development for more than 15 years before the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, and both the Pfizer and Moderna versions received full Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.

FactCheck.org, a nonprofit website that identifies misinformation in American politics, debunked the claims that COVID vaccines have caused excessive deaths, as alleged by an anti-vaccine group, the Vaccine Damage Project.

Although there were “excess deaths”—a higher than expected number of mortalities across the population during a specific time period—in the U.S. in 2021 and 2022, these were linked to cases of COVID-19, along with increased deaths by drug overdose, alcohol and motor vehicle accidents.

Many of the 1.3 million excess deaths from February 2021 to April 2023 were due to COVID-19, according to the CDC.

In May 2022, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, posted a screenshot on X from an FDA document that discussed adverse reactions to the Pfizer vaccine. She misinterpreted the page, suggesting that 1,223 people died after receiving the vaccine.

Although the reports confirm that 1,223 people died after vaccination, the cause of the death was not verified as being linked to the vaccine and was due to a number of reasons, with no “novel safety concerns or risks requiring label changes” found, according to the document.

On November 3, the FDA defended Pfizer against accusations that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was “contaminated.”

A representative told Newsweek: “With over a billion doses of the mRNA vaccines administered, no safety concerns related to the sequence of, or amount of, residual DNA have been identified.”