Soon after British tennis journalist Mike Dickson died, social media users began speculating about a cause of death. Dickson, a longtime correspondent for the Daily Mail newspaper, died Jan. 17 in Melbourne, Australia, where he had been covering the Australian Open tennis tournament.
Vaccine skeptics soon tried to link Dickson’s death and his coverage of tennis star Novak Djokovic, who is not vaccinated against COVID-19.
One Jan. 21 post put two headlines side by side and drew lines between certain words to make the point.
One Feb. 15, 2022, Daily Mail headline read: “MIKE DICKSON: Novak Djokovic could ruin his chances of becoming the GOAT by refusing to take the vaccine … it is a strange hill to die on for a player who is so desperate to be loved.”
Beneath that was a screengrab from a Jan. 17 article in The Telegraph, with the headline: “Daily Mail tennis correspondent Mike Dickson collapses and dies at Australian Open.” It was followed by the subhead: “Dickson, who was due to turn 60 this month, had been enthusiastically covering the tennis in Melbourne this week before his sudden death.”
The post’s caption read, “17 million estimated dead from vaccine and counting,” echoing a COVID-19 vaccine death statistic that we recently fact-checked and rated False.
The post’s image of the Telegraph story showed the phrase “sudden death” underlined.
(Screenshot from Instagram.)
The phrase “died suddenly” has become a dog whistle people use to discuss their unfounded belief that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing widespread sudden deaths.
Another image shared Jan. 20 on Instagram said, “Journalist who tried to cancel Novak Djokovic over not taking COVID vaccine collapses and dies while covering Australian Open.”
These posts and others were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Announcements of his death did not include a cause and did not mention COVID-19 vaccines, and we found no credible news reports linking his death to the vaccines.
Dickson’s wife, Lucy, posted a Jan. 17 statement on X confirming his death.
“We are devastated to announce that our wonderful husband and Dad, Mike, has collapsed and died while in Melbourne for the Aus Open,” it read. “For 38 years he lived his dream covering sport all over the world. He was a truly great man and we will miss him terribly.”
The Daily Mail, where Dickson worked for over three decades, also published the news.
“Dickson was a hugely respected and admired journalist who spent 38 years in the industry … and his loss will be felt deeply by colleagues,” read the Jan. 17 article. “Dickson was in Melbourne covering the Australian Open when he died and a matter of days away from his 60th birthday, on January 27.”
Dickson wrote about how Djokovic’s decision not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 impacted his ability to play in some tournaments, where vaccination was required. Djokovic was unable to compete at the 2022 U.S. Open and Australian Open because of his vaccination status.
“If Djokovic is to be excluded from many tournaments for the foreseeable future — and a lot could yet change — this is a strange hill for his hopes to die on,” Dickson wrote in 2022. “Most tennis players have now accepted, some albeit reluctantly, that they and their sport are best served by taking a vaccine that has saved countless lives.”
We contacted the Daily Mail for comment, but did not hear back.
In the U.S., more than 250 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19, and the approved vaccines are safe and effective at preventing severe illness, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC and Food and Drug Administration continue to monitor the vaccines, but “the benefits of COVID-19 vaccination continue to outweigh any potential risks” and severe reactions after vaccination are rare, the CDC said.
Although some COVID-19 vaccines have been linked to rare adverse side effects including blood clots and myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, doctors say the vaccines are safe. The risks of developing blood clots or myocarditis, for example, are higher after having a COVID-19 infection than after being vaccinated.
Claims that Dickson died from COVID-19 vaccines are not supported by available evidence. His family has not released a cause of death, nor has his former employer. Should additional information surface, we will review it. For now, we rate these claims False.
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