WorldNetDaily took a break from republishing stuff from the discredited Gateway Pundit to whitewash Capitol rioters in order to republish a Gateway Pundit article that pushes dubious COVID vaccine conspiracies in a Feb. 20 piece by Jim Hoft:
Richard Hirschman, a funeral director and embalmer from Alabama, went viral after releasing a disturbing video on his social media account on Sunday, which has since amassed over 15 million views.
Hirschman had a role in the hit documentary “Died Suddenly,” which was released in late 2022 and has garnered almost 19 million views. It is a fascinating account of anomalies found in deceased humans since the roll-out of these experimental vaccines and more.
The video features Hirschman removing what he describes as “strange white fibrous clots” from the right jugular vein of a deceased individual. Nicky King, who is also an embalmer, was recording the procedure.
Hirschman, who has more than two decades of experience in embalming, expressed his disbelief and concern in the video’s caption.
“This is a video of me removing one of the strange white fibrous clots, from the right jugular vein. The person who was recording it is Nicky King, who is also an embalmer. I didn’t notice it until I lifted the vessel up. I could feel it inside the vein. I only show this because people still don’t believe it and ask for video evidence. What’s causing this? I can’t say for sure, but I didn’t start seeing this until early 2021. Unfortunately, I still find strange clotting in several bodies that I embalm,” he wrote.
We’ve noted that “Died Suddenly,” made by anti-Semitic white supremacist Stew Peters, is filled with lies and unsupported claims — and that’s also true of HIrschman’s claims, which were first promoted at WND in 2022. Health Feedback reported that the lab Hirschman used to support his claims is run by anti-vaxxer Mike Adams, so that’s a red flag right there. Further, despite Hirschman’s assertions, blood clots in the deceased are common:
Hirschman told the Epoch Times that 50 to 70% of the bodies he saw had white, long, fibrous “structures” that he had never seen before, which he “suspected” were caused by COVID-19 vaccines. However, there is no evidence other than Hirschman’s assertions to support such an association. Furthermore, the vaccination status “isn’t on the death certificate”, as Hari P. Close, national president of the National Funeral Directors & Morticians Association, explained to PolitiFact. Therefore, Hirschman’s observations alone don’t demonstrate that such clots appear predominantly in vaccinated people.
Irene Sansano, an anatomical pathology specialist at the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, said in an email to Health Feedback that the clots found by Hirschman “don’t look different” from the ones they regularly find in blood clot autopsies at the hospital. She also explained that thromboembolisms (circulating blood clots) are frequent among deceased people and are mainly caused by “obesity, sedentarism, smoking, and now COVID-19”.
PolitiFact also pointed out at the time that Hirschman’s claims are anecdotal, not documented through scientific evidence, and that embalmers typically do not know the vaccination status of those they are embalming — and that such clots have also been found in those who died of COVID.
Hoft went on to cite a study published in “the open access peer-reviewed journal, International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research” claiming to reach similar conclusions — but as we’ve noted, that journal is a hotbed of anti-vaxxers, so there’s no reason to trust anything in it.
With both WND and the Gateway Pundit, narrative — however false — is more important than truth. That’s why Gateway Pundit recently filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to shield itself from facing the consequences of spreading lies about election fraud.
UPDATE: We’ve previously pointed out the holes in Hirschman’s story when WND and other anti-vaxxers started promoting it in 2022.