On August 2, Twitter was abuzz regarding a photo of seemingly a young doctor who claimed that she was about to be hooked to a ventilator soon as she was suffering from the contagious COVID-19. From the account the viral tweet was posted, it was informed that she died. Tweeple started mourning the death of the doctor.
Viral Narrative
The original tweet was made from an account called @Aisha_must_sayz. The account has now been deleted.
"Haya friends not coping with Covid-19. Going to be hooked up to the ventilator sometime today. Remember me, my smile to you. Thank U 4 Ur friendship. Will miss Ull. Be safe take this deadly virus seriously. Luv u guys. Bye," reads the message which was posted on July 30.
Below is a screenshot of the viral tweet from the Wayback Machine website:
Below is a screenshot of the account's bio:
Another tweet from that account which was apparently from Dr Aisha's sister later appealed for prayers for the doctor. Another image that was doing the rounds showed purported Dr Aisha strapped to a ventilator.
Below is a screenshot:
One message said that her family was given a sealed coffin after her death.
Dr Aisha was recently qualified as a doctor; celebrated her birthday on July 17 & bid farewell to this world on Eid yesterday with this glorious smile. Her family members were handed a sealed coffin due to the COVID virus. A life gone too soon. Sincere condolences! pic.twitter.com/cnLKdvjqKu
— YUSUF BIN SAEED (@YUSUFBINSAEED3) August 2, 2020
Viral Claims
RIP Dr Aisha 💐😌 pic.twitter.com/5xX00j3ZOd— MaNiRaThNaM (@manirathnam147) August 2, 2020To leave a smile like that upon this earth and leave. That's what all our life's goal should be, no fear, no anger, no regrets when we go, just smile and love. Keep spreading that smile in heaven Dr Aisha.
— Sanjukta Basu (@sanjukta) August 2, 2020
Last message on Twitter:
— Iftikhar (Ifi Rock) (@IfiRock) August 2, 2020
Haya friends not coping with covid 19. Going to be hooked up to the ventilator sometime today. Remember me, my smile to you. Thank U 4 Ur friendship. Will miss Ull Be safe take this deadly virus seriously
Dr. Aisha
She passed away today! pic.twitter.com/7jX65R75Am
Claim:
Young Dr Aisha died from COVID-19.
Fact Check:
The claim is false.
Viral Photo Unrelated To 'Dr Aisha'
A reverse image search as pointed out by several Twitter users clearly showed that the photograph which claimed to show the doctor hooked to a ventilator is actually from a report dating back to 2017.
Dubious Account
Another peculiar aspect of this account was that everything that was tweeted by this account was picked up from elsewhere, or copied word to word from other accounts. Below is a screenshot displaying this:
Below is a photo of the viral photo and the logo of the facility, Life Healthcare:
Tanya Bennets of Life Health Care, South Africa confirmed to BOOMLive that the photo was from their hospital. She added that viral narrative surrounding the person in the photo is "fake news".
According to the report, on researching visual clue on one of the photos from the fake account it was found that the woman in the viral photo was a student of the Walter Sisulu University (WSU), South Africa.
Student president of the Mthata campus of WSU, Siphesihle Ayanda Msomi, identified her and confirmed that she was a student in the Mthata campus of the university and was "alive".
"It was quite disturbing to know that someone would spread horrible and sick rumours about me. Someone has taken the photos from my personal social media accounts and the same for my family's accounts. This is an attempt to hurt me and settle personal scores," the student herself was quoted as saying regarding the misuse of her photos and the fake narrative being circulated on social media.
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