FALSE: DMX, Larry King died after receiving COVID-19 vaccine

At a glance

• Claim: Belgian author and speaker Jean-Jacques Crèvecœur showed a montage of people who supposedly died after being vaccinated against COVID-19. The video featured personalities such as the late rapper DMX and late television host Larry King, and other public figures.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: DMX died after suffering a heart attack, while Larry King died due to sepsis. There are no reports they received the COVID-19 vaccines prior to their deaths.
• Why we fact-checked this: This Facebook post was sent to Rappler through email for verification. The video has over 5,300 reactions, 1,800 comments, and 11,000 shares, as of writing.

Complete details

A video posted by Belgian author and speaker Jean-Jacques Crèvecœur shows a montage of people who supposedly died after being vaccinated against COVID-19. The late rapper DMX, whose real name was Earl Simmons, and late television host Larry King are among the people included in the video.

The video’s caption reads, “This little video presents a few people who were nevertheless very proud to be vaccinated… It killed them…. A few tens of hundreds of thousands die or suffer from the side effects of these injections which are deceptively presented to us as vaccines. More than ever, these injections of genetically modified material put you at much greater risk than COVID itself.”

The video has over 5,300 reactions, 1,800 comments, and 11,000 shares, as of writing.

This is false. 

DMX died after suffering a heart attack due to drug overdose, according to media reports. DMX also died at the age of 50, not 44. The video also claims he died on April 2, 2021, but he had only collapsed that day and died a week later on April 9.

King died on January 23, 2021, and a People report said his death certificate cited sepsis as his immediate cause of death. He was also hospitalized for COVID-19 early in January, and endured other health problems for many years.

Although the United States’ COVID-19 vaccination program launched on December 14, 2020, there were no reports that DMX and King received the COVID-19 vaccines prior to their deaths.

Other famous personalities in the video are actress Ashley Taylor Gerren, popularly known as Gerren Taylor, and professional boxer Marvin Hagler. Hagler died of natural causes, while no verified source disclosed Taylor’s cause of death.

None of the other individuals mentioned in the video have been confirmed to have died due to the COVID-19 vaccine. While a number of individuals mentioned died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccines, investigations into whether the vaccines directly caused their deaths are still ongoing. Other individuals mentioned in the video died due to other causes and/or had the vaccines ruled out as their immediate cause of death.

The caption in Crèvecœur’s post also ended with links to dubious websites covidvaccinevictims.com and healthimpactnews.com. The latter was rated “unreliable” by news and fact check organizations. – Alois Isinika and Gaby Baizas/Rappler.com

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