Ioan Isaiu died because he was vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a false narrative launched after the actor's death due to a heart attack and quickly picked up by conspiracy and pro-Russian websites.
NEWS: Ioan Isaiu, the actor who was a close friend of mine and blocked me because I didn't get vaccinated, has died.
I am telling you the cause: the vaccine. After he got vaccinated, he had blood problems and called me to ask for forgiveness, saying “I was a fool for getting vaccinated and for blocking those of you who were my friends”. This is what actually happened.
May God rest his soul!
NARRATIVE: Actor Ioan Isaiu died because he was vaccinated against COVID-19 during the pandemic.
PURPOSE: To undermine trust in vaccines in general and to promote the anti-vax movement. (Indirect) To fuel distrust in the authorities, the media, national and international medical institutions. To validate conspiracy theories and false narratives regarding the Covid pandemic. To capture public attention and monetize online traffic generated by such narratives, which can quickly become viral.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: There is no medical evidence, statements from close associates or a medical report linking the actor's death to the vaccine he received against COVID-19. The narrative started from a Facebook account of a person listed as Cristina Barbus who claims, without providing evidence, that she was a friend of Ioan Isaiu, who allegedly told her that he experienced health issues after vaccination. That post was later deleted without explanation, but the false narrative had already been picked up and distributed, including by websites that have distributed conspiracy, anti-vaccine or pro-Russian narratives over time (solidnews.ro, activenews.ro, oficiuldestiri.ro, r3media.ro etc.)
It should also be noted that these types of “news” like “I am telling you the cause”, without being accompanied by evidence, represent the typical kind of disinformation for the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact that Ioan Isaiu's heart attack occurred years after he was vaccinated does not mean at all that the heart attack was caused by the anti-coronavirus serum. On the contrary. Complications or severe adverse reactions caused by the anti-COVID-19 vaccine appear shortly after vaccination and not after 5-6 years. Cardiovascular complications that can occur in some of those vaccinated (in rare cases and, usually, after the second dose) are myocarditis or pericarditis, which are treatable.
Furthermore, to establish that a vaccine caused a person's death, thorough and clear medical investigations and solid epidemiological evidence are required, something which did not happen in the case of Ioan Isaiu.
Over the years, Veridica has debunked numerous such false narratives, which practically flooded the online space since the development of the anti-Covid vaccine. The most recent known case in which the false narrative claimed the vaccine was the cause of death was that of coach Mircea Lucescu.
BACKGROUND: The narrative appears in the context of the sudden death of actor Ioan Isaiu, known in Romania for his roles, especially those in Romanian soap operas.
Thus, the narrative enjoyed swift “popularity” and went heavily viral among his fans, the conspiracy-minded population and anti-vaxxers.
A decisive element for the swift snowballing of the narrative is that the actor was relatively young, he was only 56 years old and was not, apparently, known to have serious medical problems.
Specialists explain, however, that in the absence of a thorough specialist check-up, in most situations cardiac problems do not “hurt” and do not attract particular attention before a heart attack.
Moreover, in many situations, sick people who “are not known to have a medical history” may suffer from what is called a “silent heart attack” and which appears especially in people with diabetes or hypertension. Practically, a person can suffer a heart attack without realizing it or, in any case, without the specific pains.
Last but not least, a sudden death, especially in a young person, produces strong shock and anxiety, just as it happened in the case of Ioan Isaiu. The public cannot accept that death can occur suddenly, apparently without explanation, when you least expect it, so instead people try to find a “logical” explanation. Just as in the case of all people who were vaccinated and died, even if years later, for conspiracy theorists the “logical explanation” is the same every time: the anti-COVID vaccine.
