On May 4, TV Pirveli aired a report about the death of a 67-year-old man, Mikheil Gelashvili, in its news program at 11 o’clock. The anchor, while presenting the report, stated that “the vaccination likely became the reason of the man’s death”.
Anchor: “Neighbors of the deceased confirmed with TV Pirveli that the man got vaccinated for COVID-19 several days ago. Two days after the immunization, his health suddenly deteriorated and doctors were unable to save him”.
Malkhaz Mikeladze, a TV Pirveli journalist, added that the deceased was suffering from asthma. Based on the neighbors, he says that his condition deteriorated after getting vaccinated with AstraZeneca vaccine, however, medics saved him. He then got discharged from the hospital. In several days, his condition deteriorated. The journalist says that the neighbors are the source of the information.
One of the neighbors says in the report that the man died four days after the vaccination, while the other claims that he died seven days after the vaccination with a thrombosis.
There was no official comment from the Ministry of Health regarding the reason of the man’s death.
The given information was initially published under the title “A 67-year-old Dies After Getting Vaccinated in Tbilisi”. Later, the title of the article was changed to “A 67-year-old Who Died Two Days After Getting Vaccinated – What Happened in Tbilisi”. The text of the article was changed too. In the initial version, vaccination was claimed to be the likely reason of death, based on the neighbors. Currently, the article reads that the reason of death will be determined through an expertise.
On May 1, Shore Shannidze, a Facebook user, also published information about the death of Mikheil Gelashvili. In her post, she categorically demanded to stop the vaccination and wrote in the comments section that she received information about the death of the 70-year-old Mikheil Gelashvili in Tsaghvli village, Khashuri Municipality, who got vaccinated before his death.
TV Pirveli disseminated the information that the vaccination became the reason for the man’s death without verification, based on a sole source (neighbors’ comments). Shore Shanidze connects the death to the vaccination without any kind of evidence as well. The Director of the National Center for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), Amiran Gamkrelidze, stated at a briefing that according to preliminary data, the information is not true. The family of the deceased also denies the connection between the vaccination and the death.
Amiran Gamkrelidze also spoke about this issue at a briefing following a meeting of the Inter-Agency Council:
“We are verifying this information via bases. According to the preliminary data, this is not true. As you might know, NCDC has immunization, laboratory-confirmed cases, and birth-death bases. There is a match between two people – one is a vaccinated individual, the other is a deceased, but there are different reasons. As I am being told, the vaccinated and deceased individuals are not the same” – said Gamkrelidze.
After TV Pirveli disseminated the information, the granddaughter of the deceased published a post on Facebook. She denied the connection of her grandfather’s death with the vaccination and writes that thrombosis was the reason of death.
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