Kirk Herbstreit has hit back at anti-vaxxers attempting to blame the covid vaccine for the death of college football payer Ben Christman at age 21.
Earlier this week, it emerged that Christman died from cardiac arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat and cardiomyopathy – a disease that makes it harder for the heart to pump blood around the body.
Herbstreit took to X to offer his condolensces to Christman’s family, explaing how his son was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy at 20, but his condition improved.
The ESPN college analyst ended his initial post by saying: ‘Too many young people are asymptomatic and unaware of any issues that exist. A mandated Echo (echocardiogram – a heart test) could help save lives. It’s time for the NCAA and Conference Commissioners to take a look at this. Love to be involved.’
But an X user responded to Herbstreit asking if Christman was vaccinated for Covid-19, to which he replied: ‘I have no idea about Ben and his health history and respectfully this isn’t about politics.
‘Heart disease-cardiac arrhythmia-irregular heartbeat have been an issues with young people for generations! My grandfather-aunt-brother-myself all diagnosed with cardiomyopathy.
UNLV offensive lineman Ben Christman was found dead in his apartment back in February
Kirk Herbstreit called for college teams to introduce mandatory heart tests to check on players
‘All these can be diagnosed with the proper testing-it’s expensive to do it universally but feel it’s last time to help prevent these unfortunate type of situations.
‘Please don’t take the low hanging fruit and make it about Covid-the vaccine-or your politics. This has been an issues for several decades.’
Another anti-vaxxer replied to Herbstreit saying: ‘It kinda is about politics and the forcing of people to take an untested vaccine that has resulted in an abnormally high number of heart defects in young people.’
Herbstreit responded: ‘All good. If it’s okay let’s sidebar that discussion-just for a moment.
‘Whether the vaccine added to this issue or not-the point is my suggestion about making Echos mandatory in college athletics is past due and hope we can make it happen albeit very expensive and I’d like to use my platform and family experience with heart disease to offer my support. That’s all.’
Christman reportedly underwent an EKG – a test to check the heartbeat – on February 10 after complaining of chest pains, with a cardio doctor subsequently reviewing the tests but not finding anything alarming.
Following that practice, Christman reportedly returned home at around 3pm and went straight into his room after briefly greeting his roommate.
The next day, according to police documents, Christman was found by a teammate lying on his back, foaming at the mouth and with purple fingers.
Herbstreit said anti-vaxxers took ‘low hanging fruit’ by blaming a jab on Christman’s death
Christman began his college career at Ohio State, playing two seasons for the Buckeyes
Following that practice, Christman reportedly returned home at around 3pm and went straight into his room after briefly greeting his roommate.
The next day, according to police documents, Christman was found by a teammate lying on his back, foaming at the mouth and with purple fingers.
A police officer reportedly arrived at the scene on the morning of February 11 – following a 911 call – and determined that Christman had been deceased for ‘a few hours’ due to the color of his right arm.
The person who placed the 911 call and another teammate were administering CPR when the officer arrived.
