Originally published July 5, 2023 2:00 am PDT
UFC Light Heavyweight fighter, Anthony “Lionheart” Smith, has recently voiced his concerns about the COVID-19 vaccines during a conversation with former UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping on “Believe You Me.”
His reservations are particularly poignant given his personal encounter with the vaccines and the aftermath of a family tragedy.
Smith’s mother tragically passed away after slipping into a coma two weeks after receiving her Pfizer booster shot.
During the interview, Smith stated, “When my mom passed, right, she got sick immediately after getting her booster. She was fairly healthy, but she got sick immediately after that. So she got her booster and was in a coma in like two weeks.”
He went on to express his bewilderment at the situation, highlighting how Pfizer subsequently acknowledged a higher stroke risk in individuals over 60 who received their final booster.
Smith’s apprehension towards COVID-19 vaccines is not limited to his family experience.
He reportedly suffered a blood clot after receiving his vaccine, raising questions about the probability of such an occurrence in a healthy individual.
“I’m vaccinated and then I end up with a blood clot. What are the chances of that? Never had any issues at all. I’m really healthy,” Smith divulged during the discussion.
Moreover, Smith has drawn attention to the incidence of heart-related issues in young individuals who have been vaccinated.
He questioned, “He’s only a young man. Why do you think he had a heart attack?” in response to a comment by Bisping, before adding, “I don’t know. I mean, anytime there’s a young person that has any kind of heart problems or strokes or things like that, I kind of point in one direction. I just go straight to vaccinations every time.”
Smith underscored this point by referencing the case of Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin, who collapsed on the field, and another unspecified football player who experienced a sudden heart issue in the midst of a game last season.
“I’ve always connected those two things. And then there’s just so many young people that end up being vaccinated that end up with heart problems,” Smith said. “They just keep it so hush-hush because of course nobody wants to say that out loud. I don’t actually know, but that’s always been my hypothesis.”
The concerns raised by Smith and others reveal an ongoing debate around the potential health implications of the COVID-19 vaccines, which have been developed and rapidly mandated by various entities in the wake of the pandemic.
While significant information is available today about the vaccines, regarded as a form of genetic therapy, some remain skeptical about their safety and side effects.
A recently published peer-reviewed study in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases has confirmed that the risk of contracting COVID-19 is higher among those who have received more COVID vaccines, American Faith reported.
The study evaluated whether bivalent coronavirus vaccines—the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna—could protect against the virus.
The risk of contracting the disease “varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received,” the study authors write. “The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19.”
The study analyzed 51,017 employees at the Cleveland Clinic Health System in Cleveland, Ohio who were working there when the bivalent COVID shot was introduced.
They looked at the total number of infections that occurred during the 26 weeks after vaccination.
8.7% of participants acquired COVID-19 during the almost six-month period.
The study also showed that the protection effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines was only 29% during the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variant phases, 20% during the BQ-dominant phase, and 4% during the XBB-dominant phase.
