AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Far right uses death of NBA star to spread COVID lies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/10/2024 (193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sadly, there is yet another despicable, demented example of the far-right using a horrible incident that involves a sports celebrity to spread dangerous lies about COVID vaccines.

Last week former NBA superstar Dikembe Mutombo died of brain cancer. Within hours of his death, has-been former Saturday Night Live actor Rob Schneider used his reptilian brain to suggest the NBA Hall of Famer had died because he had been vaccinated.

Here is what Schneider wrote: “Rest in Peace… I’m sure this is just (another) coincidence,” he tweeted. “But I took a pass on the Jab and I’m gonna not let anyone I know (and who will Listen) get it either!”

How sick are you when spread baseless lies about someone who died only hours earlier? How morally depraved do you have to be to mock someone’s passing? Why was Mutombo on the receiving end of Schneider’s abhorrent and tasteless lies?

Because the 58-year-old Mutombo had put out a PSA during COVID encouraging people to get vaccinated. Few things rile up conservatives and right-wingers more than a black sports celebrity encouraging people to be safe and smart and protect themselves and the people they love by doing what science clearly proves: vaccines save lives.

The 7’2 Congolese Mutombo had a distinguished 18-year career in the NBA. He was an all-star eight times. He was known for his relentless shot-blocking and is widely regarded as one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history.

Using the death of a deceased high-profile athlete to spread lies about the efficacy of COVID vaccines once again exposes the rot at the heart of the modern conservative movement. There is something sick and deeply disturbing about people who spread lies that are not supported by any real, verifiable science – just as there is something disturbing about the equally sick people who believe lies over facts, emotions over evidence – simply because they want to advance a political agenda any craven way they can.

In 2023 Damar Hamlin of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills collapsed on the field after a brutal hit that resulted in cardiac arrest. Within minutes, there were baseless, made-up tweets that were read by millions of people suggesting that Damar’s life-threatening injury was due to him having received a COVID vaccine.

When Hamlin thankfully survived and video surfaced of him walking outside of the hospital he was recovering in, the same anti-vax freaks said that Hamlin had in fact died from the COVID vaccine (he didn’t), and that it was a body double in the video (it wasn’t).

Using Mutombo’s death and Hamlin’s scary injury to spread lies about COVID isn’t just breathtakingly insensitive; it’s also incredibly dangerous. The lie-filled tweets about Mutombo and Hamlin were seen by several millions of people.

When non-experts spread their evidence-free COVID lies on the internet, there are some gullible people who believe the junk science and don’t get vaccinated. That is very dangerous not just for themselves but also for the people in their lives and to society at large.

For conservative folk who question the life-saving health benefits of COVID vaccines, I ask you to use the commonsense God gave you. Just think. In Canada there have been 107,216,820 vaccine doses administered between December 14, 2020 and July 12, 2024.

If the vaccines were even a fraction as life-threatening as these right-wing idiots suggest, there would be hundreds of thousands of Canadians who would have died after getting vaccinated.

In my circle of friends, relatives, neighbours, co-workers and acquaintances I don’t know of a single person who died from the COVID vaccine, and I don’t know anyone who in turn knows anyone who died because of being vaccinated and I bet you don’t either. Not. One.

That’s because the vaccine saved lives. Millions of lives. It didn’t take lives as the conspiracy whackos would have you believe.

The anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-truth, anti-expert, anti-reality, scientifically stupid charlatans on the right are once again using pro athletes to spread vile lies. It’s beyond disgusting.

As for the washed-up actor who used a dead sports celebrity to discourage people from taking life-saving vaccines: you are awful, heartless and rotten to the core. No wonder your own daughter has disowned you.

Rest in peace Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo.