Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died from a COVID-19 vaccine.
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Social media post claims without evidence Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died from COVID-19
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The cause of death for Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins is not yet known.
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Rumors that he died from a COVID-19 vaccine are unfounded.
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died in Bogota, Colombia, on March 25, before the band was scheduled to perform at a festival in the city that night.
The Foo Fighters tweeted a statement mourning what it called a "tragic and untimely loss."
No cause of death has been released, but at least one Facebook post claims without evidence that Hawkins, who was 50, died because of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The post attempts to connect a New York Post article that said Hawkins’ heart weighed double the average for men of his age, and myocarditis — inflammation of the heart — which has been associated with COVID-19 vaccines in rare cases.
We found no credible reports to support the claim that Hawkins died from the vaccine.
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On March 26, the Bogota municipal government issued a statement that the city’s emergency center had received a report of a patient with "chest pain" and sent an ambulance, the Associated Press said. Health workers unsuccessfully tried to revive Hawkins.
The Colombia attorney general’s office released a preliminary toxicology report that said medical examiners found evidence of 10 types of substances in Hawkins’ body, NPR reported, including opioids, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants.
Hawkins had a history of drug use, and a 2001 heroin overdose left him in a coma, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Since COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in the United States, the deaths of high-profile people — Bob Saget and Betty White among them — have been falsely attributed to the vaccine, especially in between when a death is announced and before its cause is known.
We don’t yet know why Hawkins died, but there’s so far nothing to support the claim that he died because of a COVID-19 vaccine.
We rate this post False.
Our Sources
Facebook post, March 27, 2022
Foo Fighters tweet, March 25, 2022
PolitiFact, Clots, heart problems from COVID-19 vaccines rare; deaths from the virus persist, Dec. 10, 2021
Los Angeles Times, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had multiple drugs in his system when he died, March 26, 2022
Fiscalia Colombia tweet, March 26, 2022
Secretaria Distrital de Salud tweet, March 26, 2022
The Associated Press, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins dead at 50, March 26, 2022
New York Post, Taylor Hawkins’ heart weighed double that of an average man: report, March 27, 2022
CNN, What we know about the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, March 28, 2022
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Social media post claims without evidence Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died from COVID-19
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