Former MLB standout Aubrey Huff has developed a penchant for maneuvering his way into the conversation on various controversial subjects — or outright conspiracies — since his playing days ended. His Twitter bio, for instance, reads in part that he believes in “toxic masculinity.”
Huff became a prominent voice lending credence to the “anti-vax” movement in response to the development and mass deployment of the Covid 19 vaccines. And now he’s revving up the Covid conspiracy machine again and piling on to the idea that Buffalo Bill Safety Damar Hamlin actually died or was in critical condition because he was vaccinated.
“Isn’t it weird that [the Bills] Damar Hamlin was the biggest story for two weeks. Now we have media silence. Not a social media post from him, picture, or live video. Somethings fishy. [NFL] is either covering up his death, or he’s in bad shape,” Huff said in a tweet on Wednesday.
The idea that a body double or “clone” was being used in place of the real Hamlin to show that the safety was alright first started pinging around the internet after Hamlin was shown attending the AFC Divisional Round game between the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin had on sunglasses and a mask while watching from the booth, and was thus hard to make out fully.
Enter: Internet conspiracy theorists. Without getting too far into the weeds, the general gist of the Hamlin conspiracy is that being vaccinated against Covid resulted in Hamlin suffering a cardiac incident and the NFL and pharmaceutical companies are covering up that fact. (Ironically, there is a significant risk of serious, long-term heart issues developing from contracting Covid; there is no consistent, reputable research demonstrating such ill effects from the vaccine protecting against it.)
Huff played in to that conspiracy, positing the Hamlin shown last Sunday was someone else.
Amplifying a Covid conspiracy is about par for the course for Huff, who said during the height of the pandemic in 2020 that he would “rather die of coronavirus than wear a mask and live in fear.”
Huff had been banned from Twitter since late 2021 for spreading Covid misinformation, but his account was apparently reinstated mid-December, 2020.
