An Instagram user falsely claimed in a video that boxing middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler had been ‘killed’ with a COVID-19 vaccine.
The clip was posted on March 16 and has been viewed more than 4,500 times. It features a man discussing an obituary for Hagler in The Times newspaper, which reads: ‘He (Hagler) died on March 13, 2021 of unknown causes’ (here).
The man adds: ‘Well, we know he died after getting the vaccination. That man was killed … just like all the other tens of thousands of people involved in an ‘illegal medical experiment’ (Timestamp – 3.40).
This is false. Hagler’s cause of death was not disclosed, but his wife Kay dispelled rumors that it was related to a COVID-19 jab. She wrote on Facebook two days after his death: ‘I was the last person until the last moment near him, and I’m the only person who knows how things went, not even his family knows all the details and I accept NOT to read. some stupid remark without really knowing what’s going on.
“It was definitely not the vaccine that caused his death. My baby left in peace with his usual smile and now is not the time to talk nonsense. ”(Here).
TMZ spoke to one of Hagler’s sons and said his father was taken to hospital in New Hampshire on March 13 after suffering from shortness of breath and chest pain (here). A brief statement later posted on Hagler’s official website said the star died of ‘natural causes’. It did not elaborate on the cause of death (www.marvelousmarvin.com/).
Meanwhile, the claim of the Instagram message that “tens of thousands of people” receiving COVID-19 vaccines are part of an “illegal medical experiment” is also not true. This is probably due to similar concerns raised by social media users in February 2021 about official clinical trial records calling the years 2022 and 2023 as ‘estimated completion dates’ for COVID vaccines (here and here). However, this phrase was misinterpreted.
Vaccinations are approved by regulators after completion of phase III clinical trials, as there is a high success rate. It is then standard practice for safety monitoring to continue – to which the expression “estimated dates for completion of the study” refers – when the roll-out begins. Reuters has uncovered these allegations here, here and here in detail.
Approved COVID-19 vaccines have been found to be safe and effective, and Reuters has repeatedly addressed social media posts suggesting otherwise here, here, here, here and here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Wonderful Marvin Hagler was not killed by COVID-19 vaccine. He died of natural causes and his wife says it is not related to a vaccination. Vaccination of vaccines are not illegal medical experiments; it has been approved after widespread clinical trials and has been found to be safe and effective.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.