Those whose minds are filled with conspiracy theories have come up with a new one. They are using the internet to blame COVID-19 vaccinations for the deaths of anyone who “dies suddenly.”

One Facebook user even messaged the mother of a 6-year-old Ohio kindergartner who died after experiencing lifelong health problems since her premature birth, including epilepsy, asthma, and frequent hospitalizations with respiratory viruses. The messenger accused her mother of being a “murderer,” according to The Associated Press.

“The doctors haven’t given us any information other than it was due to all of her chronic conditions … There was never any thought that it could be from the vaccine,” the mother said. It was upsetting to see people exploiting her daughter’s death, the mother said, when they knew nothing about her.

Here are some of the other deaths cited by The AP that erroneously blamed the virus for their deaths:

• A 37-year-old Brazilian television host collapsed live on air because of a congenital heart problem.
• An 18-year-old unvaccinated bull rider died from a rare disease.
• A 32-year-old actress died from bacterial infection complications.
• A 17-year-old Florida boy who wasn’t vaccinated died in September just before his 18^thbirthday while golfing near his home in Florida.
• A California writer’s son died in a car crash in 2017 before the pandemic but his death was portrayed as vaccine related.

The Brazilian said, “I received messages saying that I should have died to serve as an example for other people who were still thinking about getting the vaccine.”

The family of the golfer said they know his heart stopped, but still don’t know exactly why. His father said, “It bothers me, him being used in that way (in a “Died Suddenly” film). He said “the biggest personal issue I have is trying to find an answer or a closure to what caused this.”

The California writer said,  “Without permission, someone has taken his (her son’s) story to show one side, and I don’t appreciate that. His legacy and memory are being tarnished.”

The AP said facts didn’t matter in online posts about deaths of hundreds of children, teens, athletes, and celebrities whose unexpected deaths and injuries have been incorrectly blamed on COVID-19 shots.

Using the hashtag #diedsuddenly, online conspiracy theorists have flooded social media with news reports, obituaries, and  GoFundMe pages in recent months, leaving grieving families to wrestle with the lies, The AP  said.

Zignal Labs, a media intelligence firm, in an analysis found the use of “died suddenly” — or a misspelled version of it — has surged more than 740% in tweets about vaccines over the past two months compared with the two previous months.

Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist who tracks and breaks down COVID data for her blog, “Your Local  Epidemiologist”, said, “The real danger is that it ultimately leads to real world actions such as not vaccinating.

Rigorous study and real-world evidence from hundreds of millions of administered shots prove that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, The AP report said. Deaths caused by vaccination are extremely rare and the risks associated with not getting vaccinated are far higher than the risks of vaccination.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped conspiracy theorists from lobbing a variety of untrue accusations at the vaccines.

“Died Suddenly,” an online “documentary” by the same name, is giving power to what experts say is a new and damaging shorthand. A montage of headlines found on Google falsely suggest they prove that sudden deaths have “never happened like this until now.”

The film has amassed more than 20 million views on an alternative video sharing website, and its companion Twitter account posts about more deaths and injuries daily.

A technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory said, “It’s kind of an in-group language, kind of a wink wink, nudge nudge. “They’re taking something that is a relatively routine way of describing something — people do, in fact, die unexpectedly — and then by assigning a hashtag to it, they aggregate all of these incidents in one place.”

Some of the people featured died of genetic disorders, drug overdoses, flu complications or suicide. One died in a surfing accident. The filmmakers didn’t respond to specific questions from The AP, insisting there had been a “PROVEN rate of excess deaths,” without providing data.

The AP said COVID-19 vaccines prevented nearly 2 million U.S. deaths in just their first year of use. Conspiracy theorists won’t believe that, of course, and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it. Conspiracies have, unfortunately, become a sad fact of current American life.