A Bunch Of COVID Conspiracy Theorists Got Debunked After Accusing NSW Health Of Hiring Actors
They claimed NSW had hired 'crisis actors' to scare people into vaccination.
COVID conspirators who claim they “exposed” sick patients as actors have been debunked by ABC’s Media Watch, and at the same time proven themselves to be very shit at investigating anything.
In late August, NSW Health shared interviews with COVID patients struggling for breath in hospital. The stories are tragic and incredibly affecting — Fawaz, a 50 year old tradie whose six kids also have COVID is pictured splayed on his stomach; Ramona, a single mother who works at a pharmacy now separated from her two children compares the recovery to her two births and surgery; and Osama, a 33-year-old tradie has three children in Westmead Hospital while his wife was in ICU, all with COVID. All three encourage viewers to get vaccinated and not risk ending up in the same position.
But Media Watch last night explained that TikTok users said they’d found Osama and Ramona’s profiles on an actors’ forum called StarNow, and they subsequently claimed they were employed by NSW Health to play COVID suffers.
One user — @tiktokkotkitime2wakeup — recorded himself calling the hospital asking to talk to Ramona. The hospital said they didn’t have anyone under that surname, which he used as proof “as a fraud to push fear.” But he’d used the name of an actor on StarNow who he believed was Ramona, who of course was not in the hospital system. Because she was a completely different person.
A Facebook user also claimed she called the hospital to expose the “lies on tv!!!” And a comedian took to Instgram to detail that he’d copped abuse and been wrongly accused of playing Osama, even though he is also, very clearly, a different person.
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Dr Teresa Anderson from the Sydney Local Health District told Media Watch via a statement that it’s been “highly distressing for Dr Morgan [the lung specialist who filmed the video] and the patients to see their powerful messages undermined by these baseless and dangerous accusation… Staff in Concord Hospital’s intensive care unit have also received multiple intimidating phone calls from members of the public.”
The TikTok profiles of these people have since been banned. You can watch the full Media Watch report here.