‘Nonsense’ claim Matthew Perry died after heat triggered his COVID-19 vaccine | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Matthew Perry died after heat triggered his COVID-19 vaccine

An Oct. 29 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of the late actor Matthew Perry wearing a T-shirt with a slogan that reads “Could I be any more vaccinated?” – a play on his “Friends” character’s catchphrase.

“RIP Matthew Perry," reads part of the caption. "Passed in a hot tub. Likely cause of death is stuff induced heart attack – from the heat – and of course being propagandized to volunteer for his own delayed removal." The post author's comments on the post include numerous references to the COVID-19 vaccine.

The caption also includes a warning to “watch out for heat" since it asserts "heat can trigger the payload in ‘the stuff.’" It likewise warns about Wi-Fi.

It was shared more than 100 times in one day.

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Our rating: False

Experts said the claim is baseless. None of the ingredients in the COVID-19 vaccines can be activated by heat, wireless signals or any other form of radiation, making a fatal activation of the vaccine impossible.

COVID-19 vaccine being activated by heat is ‘complete nonsense’

Perry, the 54-year-old Emmy-nominated “Friends” star, was found dead Oct. 28 in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home. Authorities say it may take weeks before the cause of death is determined.

But multiple experts told USA TODAY it could not have been caused by chemicals in the vaccine somehow being activated by heat or any other type of radiation or energy. Such a claim contradicts the firmly established science of and research into how the vaccines function.

Fact check: No evidence 5G networks have 'enormous impact' on immune system

“The wildly arbitrary claims about the heat of a hot tub or Wi-Fi activating the vaccine to kill him is complete nonsense devoid of any biological plausibility,” Dr. Amesh Adajla, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told USA TODAY in an email.

Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at the University of North Carolina, agreed.

“Obviously, there is nothing at all in these vaccines that can cause anything like we’re talking about,” he told USA TODAY.

Comments from the user who shared the post make clear the word "stuff" refers to the COVID-19 vaccines.

The user also encourages other users to contact him for information on how to remove the “stuff” from their bodies “before some heat or wifi (sic) sets it off.”

The claim in the post echoes others previously debunked by USA TODAY, including one that asserts the vaccines contain graphene oxide. That is a compound used in labs to test if the mRNA in the vaccine can lead to the production of a spiked protein, but it is not an ingredient in the vaccine itself. Another falsely claimed an emergency broadcast signal would activate chemicals in vaccinated people.

The post also asserts that vaccinated musicians, athletes and reporters are “going down” because of heat from exercise or from being near Wi-Fi fields and wireless microphones. There is no credible evidence that vaccinated people are more susceptible to either high temperatures or wireless signals than the unvaccinated are.

“If this was truly the case – that energy from heat and Wi-Fi signals trigger the payload that kills you in some fashion – pretty much half the world should have died this last summer, which was one of the hottest on record,” Dr. Thomas Russo, chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo’s Department of Medicine, told USA TODAY.

The post also falsely claims that testosterone blocks a person’s ability to “detox” the vaccines.

“There are no toxins in the vaccines,” Russo said.

The primary component of the vaccines is mRNA, which teaches the body how to make antibodies against the spike proteins found on the virus before degrading and exiting the body, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Christoff did not provide evidence to support the claim when contacted for comment. USA TODAY previously debunked his claim that face masks make people more obedient and "slave-like."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim links heat, Matthew Perry's COVID-19 vaccine | Fact check