Video of Big Pokey's Death Sparks COVID-19 Vaccine Conspiracy Theories

The untimely death of Texas rapper Big Pokey has led to anti-vax conspiracy theorists blaming the COVID-19 vaccine for his passing. His publicist, however, told Newsweek "the vaccination played no part in his death."

Born Milton Powell, the 48-year-old rapper collapsed onstage during a Juneteenth weekend performance at Pour09, a Beaumont bar, east of Houston, Texas.

The rapper died on Sunday following his collapse, which was captured on video and posted to social media. It showed the rapper taking a deep breath into the microphone as he held onto a railing before falling onto his back.

Other videos showed people crowding around him to offer help, including one woman who said she was a nurse.

The family announced his death on Instagram, writing that he died on June 18 and he will forever be remembered as The Hardest Pit In the Litter, referring to the name of the rapper's 1999 debut album.

Big Pokey's cause of death is not yet known, and his family is awaiting the results of an autopsy to find out why he died.

"The vaccination played no part in his death. The exact cause of death is pending as we await the autopsy," Big Pokey's publicist, La'Torria Lemon, told Newsweek.

Newsweek a Justice of the Peace in Jefferson County, where he died, for comment.

Despite the fact that the family was still waiting for a coroner's report to know his cause of death, social media users rushed to share their theories that the COVID-19 jab killed the rapper.

"RIP Big Pokey. Looks like maybe another victim of the mRNA Vaccines," tweeted one person.

Another added: "Dear Pro Covid Vaxers, Do you seriously not want to know what the f*** is going on? Another horribly saddening case of 'died suddenly' to somebody performing - this time Big Pokey aka Milton Powell. RIP. There are THREE other stories like this - just from today. These continued sudden deaths are not coincidences. Rather than RISK finding out, it COULD BE the vaccine you would rather play PRETEND & ignore this is even happening. You were ABSOLUTELY PETRIFIED during Covid - now MORE people are dying each week excessively & you prefer to PRETEND they're not. Absolutely insane - wake up please."

But other people on Twitter were not impressed with the conspiracy theories.

"So anytime someone has a cardiac arrest, stroke, heart attack, arrhythmia, embolism, ruptured aneurism, or any other thing that can cause someone to die instantly, we're just going to blame vaccines?" tweeted one person.

Another wrote: "Anti-vaxxers are now using rapper Big Pokey's untimely death to spread disinformation about the COVID vaccine. They're doing this w/ a lot of high-profile cases - completely unaware of their medical backgrounds, diagnosis, or knowledge of whether or not they were even vaccinated."

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that deaths after the COVID-19 vaccination are rare.

More common COVID vaccine side-effects are "normal signs that your body is building protection," and include pain, redness or swelling at the site of the injection, and tiredness, muscle aches, chills, fever or nausea. The CDC reiterates that COVID vaccines are safe and effective.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires healthcare providers to report any deaths after COVID-19 vaccinations to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) "even if it's unclear whether the vaccine was the cause." Reports of adverse effects, including deaths, do not necessarily mean that the vaccine caused a health problem.

More than 672 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the U.S. between December 2020 and March 2023, during which time the VAERS received 19,476 preliminary reports of death. This works out to approximately 0.0029 percent of people who have had the vaccine.

The CDC reported that continued monitoring identified nine deaths causally associated with the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccination.

While there has been a rise in the number of people dying even though they had the COVID vaccine and booster, the reasons for the increase are not necessarily a direct result of the vaccination.

This includes a rising share of the population that is vaccinated, decreased immune protection and low uptake of boosters, and also changes in immunity among unvaccinated people, according to KFF, a health-policy research organization.

"New variants combined with a reduction in masking and other non-pharmaceutical interventions may also lead to more transmission, which can in turn lead to more deaths," it wrote on its website.

"During the early rollout of vaccines, vaccinated people represented a small share of total deaths, but experts warned that the share would likely rise simply because vaccinated people were representing a growing share of the population."

KFF added: "In other words, if 100% of people in the U.S. were vaccinated, vaccinated people would represent 100% of COVID-19 deaths.

"COVID-19 vaccines are very effective at preventing severe illness and death, but they are not perfect, so deaths among vaccinated people will still occur."

Big Pokey helped pioneer Houston's hip hop sound with his Screwed Up Click, rap collective formed in the mid-1990's and led by DJ Screw.

The rapper is survived by his wife and three adult children.

UPDATE: 6/21/23, 9:40 a.m. ET: This article was update to include comments from Big Pokey's publicist La'Torria Lemon.