Family hits out at anti-vaccine groups for using woman's death to push misinformation

Nicole Cahill, 22, tragically passed away in March of this year after suffering with health problems for many years.

The sister of a young woman whose death has been wrongfully associated with the Covid-19 vaccine and used to push an anti-vaccine narrative has criticised those “degrading her memory.” 

Nicole Cahill, 22, tragically passed away in March of this year after suffering with health problems for many years.

But within two days of her funeral, her family became aware of social media posts wrongly linking her death to the Covid-19 vaccine.

“It wasn't even two days after she died, that the first post had gone up,” her sister Debra told RTÉ’s Liveline.

The initial post was a screenshot from RIP.ie of her sister’s death notice and a picture of her vaccine card with the text “another young life gone from the vaccine.” 

“Having to go on to social media when you've been grieving and having to see that, it’s not fair on the family, especially when it was coming for people who hadn’t a clue who Nicole was,” she said.

Debra and her sister Nicole whose image has been used to push an anti-vaccine agenda

While Debra’s family have pleaded with those sharing the false information to remove it, some have refused and even accused Debra and her family of being "murderers" by allowing Nicole to get the vaccine.

“Put yourself in that family's shoes, if that was your child, how would you feel if someone was sharing false information about your sister or child or family memory or totally degrading their memory.

“Nicole should be remembered for the bubbly, fun person she was but her face is being splashed all over social media to scare people not to get a vaccine.” 

Debra said it was “disgusting” that her sister's name is being used to push anti-vaccine messaging and said campaigners “shouldn’t be doing it."

“To be using this to deceive people, and completely degrading the family and degrading that person's memory for your own personal tactics is just wrong.

"At the end of the day, Nicole passed away and we have to grieve her loss.

“Nicole did not die from the vaccine," she said,

"Leave the girl to rest in peace and be remembered in the way we want her to be remembered."