Publication suggests that two athletes died because of vaccination against Covid-19 in a marathon. In fact, the cause of death is not named by the organization. And there is no evidence of a relationship.
The phrase
“We have to applaud the athletes. It has clearly become a very high-risk activity, post ‘injected salvation’. These are the ones who deserve applause at the window, because they prove the ongoing genocide with their lives. Two more fallen thrushes.”
A Facebook post suggests that the death of two athletes during the Comrades Marathon, an annual ultramarathon held in South Africa, was precipitated by “injected post-salvation” — a common language in messages critical of Covid vaccination.
It is true that two ultramarathoners died during the South African sporting event. As reported by Revista Atletismo, one of the victims was named Yzameleni Mthembu and fainted after running 78 kilometers of the race, with just another 12 to reach the finish line.
Although the reason for the death has not been announced so far, the organization of the ultramarathon explained that “Mthembu had complications along the way and collapsed in Pinetown”. The other victim was Phakamile Ntshiza, who “will have died before being transported to the hospital when he had run about halfway.”
At no point in this news – which despite being true was instrumentalized in the publication under analysis – is the death of the two athletes associated with vaccination against Covid-19. The only time the disease is mentioned in the article was when it was reported that this test “took place for the first time after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in South Africa“.
Even before the pandemic, deaths had already been recorded during the Comrades Marathon. An article published in The South African Medical Journal in 2007 said that, until that moment, 13 years before the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, seven people had died during the test, which had already taken place for 82 years.
Furthermore, this is not the only case of the Marathon of the Comrades, nor among foreign athletes. On July 15, 1912, Portuguese Francisco Lázaro lost consciousness during the marathon at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden, and died. The death, though shrouded in mystery by suspected doping, was attributed to a failure caused by heat stroke and dehydration. 100 years ago, Covid-19 did not yet exist and there were already deaths because of the physical demand of these tests.
Conclusion
There is no evidence that the death of two athletes in a marathon in South Africa was caused by any reaction to the Covid-19 vaccination. The vaccination status of the two marathon runners is not even reported in the article that formed the basis for the false publication. And deaths in similar circumstances have happened in the past and in other evidence.
