I learned today that, immediately after Danish footballer Christian Eriksen collapsed during a match at the European Championship in June, a rumor started that he'd just received a coronavirus vaccination which had given him a heart attack. By the time it was debunked when Eriksen’s club, Inter Milan, said that he hadn't actually been vaccinated, it had already spread far enough that it still persists today, combined with the claims that the vaccines cause heart problems and even that Eriksen died. An incident occurs, a rumor starts and spreads, it is debunked, but it lives on and is even pushed further and further because it says something believers want to hear. (Andrew Shields, #111words, 3 September 2021)
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