Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

FACTCHECK

Debunked: Video of bus driver collapsing predates Covid-19 and doesn't show vaccine effects

Footage of a 13-year-old steering the wheel was widely shared, as were dodgy claims.

A VIDEO SHARED on social media showing a bus driver collapsing, prompting a child to take control of the steering wheel, does not, as many descriptions on social media claim, show the effect of Covid-19 vaccines.

One such video was shared on Facebook with the description: “Passengers on buses, trains and planes all subjected to untold dangers by a bunch of psychopaths who insisted the whole world took the arm juice.

“Hold the bastards to account. No Amnesty!”

Similar claims about the video recently spread on multiple social media platforms, such as Twitter, where The Journal was able to find dozens of posts saying that the video showed the effects of vaccines for Covid-19.

“How much you want to bet the clot shots got him? No wonder the rich are demanding their private jets are piloted by pure bloods,” one tweet read, while multiple others described the incident as a “vaxxident” or used injection emojis to communicate what they believed the cause of the driver’s collapse was. 

However, these claims are untrue. The incident shown in the video happened more than a decade ago, long before Covid-19 infected humans or a vaccine was developed in response. The story was widely reported at that time.

In 2012, a 13-year-old passenger in the Seattle metropolitan area, in the United States, took control of the wheel of the school bus he was travelling on, steering it to safety, before performing chest compressions on the driver, who had lost consciousness, according to local reports published at the time.

The 43-year-old driver had been struck by a heart attack and would sadly die two days after the incident.

Debunked and baseless claims that vaccines for cause heart attacks have spread in anti-vaccine groups for years, but have ramped up with the release of the COVID-19 vaccine. The Journal has tackled similar claims before. 

While COVID-19 vaccines have been associated with heart inflammation in rare cases, the risk is far higher after infection with Covid-19, suggesting that vaccination provides an overall protective effect for the heart.  

The Irish Heart Foundation recommends that people with heart conditions receive  Covid-19 vaccines, saying: “Covid infection itself can affect the heart and cause damage.

“The vaccines have been shown to be safe and there are no recorded cardiac issues other than the rare case of severe allergy/anaphylaxis.”

 

The Journal’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here.