A footy legend said 'heart issues and Bell's palsy has gone through the roof since the boosters'. Is he right?

CheckMate is a weekly newsletter from RMIT FactLab which recaps the latest in the world of fact checking and misinformation, drawing on the work of FactLab and its sister organisation, RMIT ABC Fact Check.

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In this week's CheckMate, we interrogate claims made by AFL pundits on The Sunday Footy Show (and shared widely among vaccine sceptics) about supposed COVID-19 vaccine side effects.

We also examine election funding rules, and set the record straight on the impact of the war in Ukraine on Australian fuel prices.

Social media lit up after high-profile AFL pundits, including former player Matthew Lloyd, raised the possibility that COVID-19 jabs had fuelled a rise in heart conditions and Bell's palsy, with vaccine sceptics continuing to share quotes and clips of the exchange.

On April 10, panelists on Nine's AFL Sunday Footy Show discussed the mid-match benching of Port Adelaide player and Brownlow medalist Ollie Wines due to dizziness and nausea that was later attributed to a heart arrhythmia.

That conversation quickly turned to potential vaccine side effects, with commentator Nathan Brown suggesting there was «a lot of this going on in world sport at the moment» following COVID-19 «booster shots».

«That's obviously the word going round,» he added, before host Tony Jones observed that there was also «a bit of [Bell's palsy] going round».

«Exactly,» said Lloyd. «Heart issues and Bell's palsy has gone through the roof since the boosters and COVID issues.»

But there is no evidence to suggest an increase in heart problems related to the jab.

Lloyd has since walked back his comments, but that hasn't stopped them appearing