Covid vaccine did not cause DMX's heart attack: Here's why claims made by alleged family member are false
Grammy-nominated star DMX died on April 9 after suffering a heart attack at his home that left him in a coma for seven days. The rapper and actor was 50 years old.
“We are deeply saddened to announce today that our loved one, DMX, birth name of Earl Simmons, passed away at 50 years old at White Plains Hospital with his family by his side after being placed on life support for the past few days,” read a statement from the rapper’s family on Friday morning.
A rep for White Plains Hospital in New York — where the rapper was on life support for a week — also shared a statement in which the medical staff extended their “deepest condolences” to DMX’s family and fans.
"Earl Simmons passed away peacefully with family present after suffering a catastrophic cardiac arrest," the statement said.
While it is not clear what preceded the rapper’s heart attack, social media was abuzz with unsubstantiated claims that the cardiac arrest was triggered by opioid overdose, partly because DMX had a history of struggling with addiction, including to crack cocaine, for which he had sought treatment several times.
Another unproven claim — that DMX had received the Covid vaccine just days before his heart attack — was also being circulated on social media.
This wild rumor was started by MTO News.The celebrity gossip site attributed the claim to an unnamed family member. The alleged family member told the outlet that the rapper had received the Covid vaccine — just days before suffering a cardiac arrest — "so that he could go travel and perform, stuff like that" insinuating that the vaccine might have triggered it. The name of the vaccine wasn't revealed in the article.
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However, the claims were later found to be unproven and false. According to PolitiFact, NewsGuard said the website (MTO News) in question “frequently publishes unsubstantiated claims based on unclear sourcing.” The CDC wrote that it found “no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths” after reviewing months of reports to its vaccine safety surveillance program.
Going by reports that went viral on social media and were published by several other websites, the family member was “furious” about rumors surrounding the rapper overdosing on drugs.
They told the outlet, “Everyone (in the news) keeps saying that (DMX) had a drug overdose. How do they know? I’m in the family and no doctor told me anything about an overdose. Yes, he had past issues with drugs. But nobody knows that he had an OD. It’s f*****d up that it's being reported like that.”
PolitiFact claimed it could not verify the accuracy of the quotes or whether DMX was recently vaccinated before he died.
Fact-checking website Snopes has also debunked the claims. "This rumor comes from an unnamed source quoted in a gossip magazine that has published inaccurate information on more than one occasion. As of this writing, there's no evidence that COVID-19 or a COVID-19 vaccine played any part in DMX's death," Snopes said.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The claims made in the original article published on the website were fact-checked and were found to be unproven. This article has been updated to reflect those changes.