Actor Matthew Perry died Oct. 28, setting off a new round of unfounded rumors that a celebrity’s death was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine.
One Instagram post, sharing a photo of Perry, used hashtags including #clotshotstrikesagain and #vaccineinjury.” Others responded to news of his death by re-sharing along with thinking emojis Perry’s 2021 post expressing support for the vaccine.
“I mean…” one Instagram user posted.
This post was 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.)
Perry, 54, was found dead at his Los Angeles home. But his cause of death is still unknown and pending a medical examiner’s investigation. A Los Angeles Police Department captain told The New York Times that the cause likely will not be determined for some time.
The Los Angeles Times and TMZ reported, citing unnamed sources, that Perry’s body was found in a hot tub at his home.
By 49, Perry had spent more than half of his life in rehab, he recounted in “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” a 2022 memoir about his decadeslong addiction to drugs and alcohol. And he had a number of health concerns.
“His addiction led to a medical odyssey in 2018 that included pneumonia, an exploded colon, a brief stint on life support, two weeks in a coma, nine months with a colostomy bag, more than a dozen stomach surgeries, and the realization that, by the time he was 49, he had spent more than half of his life in treatment centers or sober living facilities,” The New York Times reported in 2022.
Perry’s family said in a statement to People magazine: “We are heartbroken by the tragic loss of our beloved son and brother. Matthew brought so much joy to the world, both as an actor and a friend.”
The family didn’t say that Perry died because of a vaccine, nor could we find any credible news reports or other evidence to suggest this was the case.
If information emerges to corroborate what is now a baseless claim, we’ll reconsider our ruling. For now we rate it False.
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. See the sources for this fact check here.
