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Did the virus play a role in his passing?
By Dan O'Reilly — Written on Jan 11, 2022
Actor and comedian Bob Saget passed away at the age of 65 on Sunday, January 9th, 2022. While no cause of death has been released, some have been speculating the COVID-19 played a role in his passing.
The actor was found with no pulse in his bed at an Orlando hotel. There is no evidence of drugs or foul play.
As Saget had been vocal about testing positive for COVID-19 some time before his death and had been a vocal supporter of vaccines, there have been conflicting theories that either the virus or a booster shot played a role in his death.
Did Bob Saget die from COVID-19?
It may take weeks to determine Saget's exact cause and manner of death so it is impossible to link it to the virus at this time.
Bob Saget revealed that he had had COVID-19 recently.
Saget said of his experience with COVID-19, “It is not good, it does not feel good.”
Saget said that he didn’t know what variant he had but he mentioned omicron as a possibility saying in a joke, “I think at one point, omicron was opening for delta… But then omicron got so big, delta’s opening now for omicron.”
This indicates that Saget might have been sick recently as the first case of Omicron in the United States was only detected on December 1st, 2021. This notion seems to be supported by a witness to one of his shows who said, “he said he had recently gotten COVID, maybe less than a month ago.”
The same witness also said of Saget’s Covid diagnosis, “you really couldn’t tell.”
Bob Saget was a supporter of COVID-19 vaccines.
The "Full House" star had praised the "amazing efforts scientists and doctors are making to help people during this time," according to his podcast in a May 2021 episode.
He also recently tweeted a joke about getting the COVID-19 booster shot.
While some theorists have made the inaccurate assumption that the booster may have led to his death, it remains to be seen exatly what Saget’s cause of death was.
There seems to have been minimal indication that Saget was suffering from any COVID symptoms in the days leading up to his death based on witness reports.
On the other hand, Saget’s sudden and mysterious death has left many with unanswered questions until the Orange County Medical Examiner publishes the rest of their findings.
On another interview just "hours before" he flew to Orlando days before his death, he appeared sick.
Bob Saget appeared on another show, Monsters in the Morning, via video chat in what they have listed as his "final interview".
In the interview, he does appear congested and a under the weather.
"I'm sure this is just hindsight," started a commenter after watching the below interview, "but his speech / mannerisms do seem a bit slower. What a shocker. So sad...RIP Bob. Gone too soon."
Saget appears to have died in his sleep.
Saget was on tour at the time and had checked into his hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando in the early hours of Sunday morning following a show. After Saget’s family were unable to contact him they became concerned.
When Saget also missed his checkout time, a hotel security officer tried knocking several times before entering the room, where he found Saget unresponsive in his hotel room’s bed.
After attempting to wake Saget and checking his vitals, hotel staff found that Saget was not breathing and had no pulse. At that point, hotel staff called for emergency services.
At 4:18 pm Sunday, January 9th, 2022, Bab Saget was pronounced dead by first responders.
At this time, the only official word on Saget’s cause of death comes from the Orange County Medical Examiner who determined that there was no evidence of foul play and that there was no indication that drugs played a role in the actor and comedian’s death.
Bob Saget recently appeared on a podcast called “A Corporate Time With Tom And Dan” which was posted on January 6th, 2022. Saget discussed a number of different topics, from his acting career to his standup.
What appeared to be an innocuous topic of the conversation in the podcast was Covid. Initially, Saget and the hosts spoke about how Covid-19 had affected their conduct and venues before the conversation got onto everyone’s personal experiences with Covid.
Dan O'Reilly is a writer who covers news, politics, and social justice. Follow him on Twitter.