On July 14, 2023, the dubious Twitter account @DiedSuddenly_ appeared to claim in a tweet that a 31-year-old Wisconsin mother named Callie Driskill had died due to the effects of a COVID-19 vaccine. The account's name, "DiedSuddenly," referenced a false rumor that claims such vaccines increase the risk of death.
This misleading tweet was promoted by @DiedSuddenly_ at a time when family and friends were in mourning.
While a 2021 Facebook post cited in the tweet about Driskill receiving a COVID-19 vaccination truly did come from Driskill's account, the implication made by the Twitter account that the vaccine caused her death was severely misleading.
Driskill died on July 11 of injuries following an ATV accident that had occurred the previous day. (Online searches indicated that some users believed she had died specifically in a "car accident," but again, a search for the facts showed that her death resulted from a crash involving an ATV.)
On July 12, Wisconsin's NBC15.com initially reported on the ATV crash having happened in Tomah, but did not name Driskill at the time, as her death had just occurred. "Her name was not released pending notification of the family," the article said.
On Messenger, Callie's husband, Neil Driskill, confirmed to Snopes that she had died in the ATV accident. The couple had just been married earlier in 2023.
"She did not die of a COVID vaccine," Neil told us. "It was the ATV accident."
According to a flyer posted on Facebook, family and friends gathered on July 15 for an "ATV/UTV Ride" event that was created in Driskill's memory.
Tiffany and Olga Villa-Retana, both friends of the Driskills, confirmed the same information to us about how she had died.
"The COVID vaccine had nothing to do with her passing," they told us via Messenger. "She was in a tragic ATV accident."
The Villa-Retanas also shared the following:
If there is something that I would like anybody to know about her, it would be this. Callie was one-of-a-kind. There's nobody on this earth that would ever amount to her. She had a heart of gold and would do anything for anybody that needed her help. Her imperfections and flaws made her the perfect person. She lived her life like every day was her last. She had a gentle soul and a free spirit. To all of the people that didn't know her, I feel sorry for them they missed out on a wonderful person.
Driskill's obituary described the love she had for the people close to her in her life, citing moments such as fishing with her father. Perhaps most notable was her love for her husband, Neil, and her daughter, Hayden, who just turned nine years old at the beginning of the month.
"Hayden was the sparkle in Callie's eye, her mini-me, her love, her future, the very best part of her," the obituary read.
The memory-filled story of Driskill's life also mentioned that when she was young, she served as a caregiver to her mother until the age of 12 and also had an "unbreakable bond" with her stepmother, Debi, before her passing.
(Credit: The Family of Callie Driskill)
We contacted the Monroe County Sheriff's Office and the Monroe County Office of the Medical Examiner to request more information regarding this matter, but did not hear back before this story was published.
