Following the sudden death of Australian cricketing legend Shane Warne in Thailand, a video was viewed hundreds of thousands of times in social media posts that claimed it shows the late sportsman's son suggesting his father's death was related to the Covid-19 vaccine. However, the posts are misleading. The video actually shows a former Australian far-right leader speaking about Warne's death. Thai authorities have stated that Warne died of natural causes.
"Shane Warne's son tells ya what the media left out", reads the caption of a Facebook post published on March 29, 2022.
The post includes a video of a man speaking about the late Shane Warne.
He claims that Warne died while seeking treatment in Thailand for health issues that arose after he was vaccinated against Covid-19.
Speaking about Warne's death, he says: "He was in Thailand seeking some kind of cleanse or therapy because ever since he'd been vaccinated, he'd had chest pains and health issues."
A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on April 13, 2022. The claim circulated after Warne died aged 52 on March 4, 2022 on the Thai holiday island of Koh Samui.
The video was shared alongside a similar claim on Facebook here and here.
A video shared on TikTok has been viewed more than 260,000 times alongside the same claim.
The claim, however, is misleading; the person speaking in the video is not Warne's son, and Thai authorities said the late cricketer died of natural causes.
Former far-right leader
A Google reverse image search of the video found an earlier version of the clip featuring Blair Cottrell, the former leader of the far-right Australian group United Patriots Front.
It was posted here on messaging app Telegram on March 22.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the misleading post (left) and the Telegram post (right):
In a message on March 29, in which he references his earlier video, Cottrell states he did not claim to be Warne's son, Jackson.
Jackson Warne is one of the late cricketer's three children -- and only son.
He posted a video of his speech at his father's memorial on Instagram, on March 31:
'Natural causes'
Police in Thailand said on March 7 that Warne died of natural causes.
"Investigators received an autopsy report today in which a forensic doctor concludes the death was due to natural causes," deputy national police spokesman Krissana Pattanacharoen said in a statement.
As of April 22, 2022, there has been no official investigation into Warne's death that has found it was related to the Covid-19 vaccine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by BOOM staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)