Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron's death is being falsely linked to the COVID-19 vaccine

• Baseball icon Hank Aaron died on Friday, aged 86.
• In the wake of his death anti-vaxxers tied his death to the COVID-19 vaccine, which he had recently gotten.
• But Georgia's Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said on Monday that Aaron died of natural causes.

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron's death has been exploited by anti-vaxxers, but health officials in Georgia said this week that there is no evidence his death was related to him getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

Aaron died on Friday at 86 years old, three weeks after he received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination.

In the days that followed, anti-vaxxers suggested it was linked to the vaccine.

High-profile anti-vaccine supporters including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Del Bigtree even questioned Aaron's death online, calling it "suspicious" and accusing the COVID-19 inoculation of being unsafe.

Vaccines are, however, a safe and controlled way to gain immunity to a virus without contracting a disease, and COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Amid questions from anti-vaxxers, Georgia's Fulton County Medical Examiner's office said on Monday that Aaron died on of natural causes, according to NBC News.

Georgia Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that there is "no evidence" that Aaron's death had anything to do with the COVID-19 vaccine.

"I know that people are saying that. I've seen it on social media. I think it's just important that we quell these kind of rumors because we don't want people to be dissuaded from getting the vaccine," Toomey said.

Aaron had celebrated getting the COVID-19 vaccine at a health clinic at the Morehouse School of Medicine on January 5, saying it made him feel "wonderful."

"I don't have any qualms about it at all, you know. I feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this. ... It's just a small thing that can help zillions of people in this country," he told the Associated Press at the time.

Peter Hotez, an expert on vaccine development from the Baylor College of Medicine who wrote the book "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism" about his daughter, called anti-vaxxers who tied Aaron's death to the COVID-19 vaccine "opportunists" in an interview with NBC News.

"They'll try to glom on to anything they can," Hotez, who previously told Insider that he was concerned about the growing anti-vaccine movement and COVID-19, said.

A memorial service for Aaron was held in Atlanta on Tuesday, and a funeral service is scheduled for Wednesday.