This video does not show fictitious patients of the COVID-19 pandemic

Published on : 12/21/2021 – 13:20

The video, posted on Twitter on December 11 by an account that regularly relays anti-vaccine content, has reached more than 8,000 likes. It shows a young woman in a hospital bed with a mask. She says in German that she is in a COVID-19 treatment center and explains that she is playing the role of the patient: “We are lying down and simulating, as you can clearly see. Because this is the new center. COVID-19 and that a test is underway “.

The caption of the tweet relaying the video reads in English: “SHOCKING: the crisis actor admits to having played the role of a patient struggling with COVID-19”.

The video was also shared in French on Twitter and in German on Facebook like here and here.

An exercise in a Covid-19 treatment center in Berlin

Keyword searches are used to find the original video and context.

By doing a search with the keywords in English and German “fake Patienten” (“false patients”) on Facebook, we find this video with on the top left the name of an Instagram user: “Officialmelisa”.

By searching for this name on Instagram, we find the original video. It comes from Instagram stories by “Officialmelisa”, a German-speaking Instagrammer, published on Thursday, September 10, 2020.

In his stories, “Officialmelisa” says that it is a “test” in a “new COVID-19 center”. She indicates that she is not sick. She also shows a printed timetable with her role description, “Übungsaufgabe” in German.

The name of the hospital, “Vivantes”, which is written on the bed linen, tells us that the scene takes place in a hospital of the Berlin hospital group “Vivantes”.

By searching with the keywords “Coronazentrum”, “Übung” (“Covid-19 center” and “exercise” in German) and “Living”, we find a press release from the Vivantes group of September 11, 2020, about training in the COVID-19 treatment center Jafféstrasse, Berlin.

The exercise, which took place on September 10, 2020, is a “simulation” aimed at preparing staff in the event of “an increasing number of infections which would occupy the reserve”. Vivantes specifies that 70 extras played the role of the fictitious patients, that is to say “the admission, care, transfer and discharge of the fictitious patients. [atteints] of Covid-19 “. In addition, it indicates that the” role of the patient is generally assumed by volunteers, who receive an allowance for their expenses “.

“Officialmelisa” posted another story on Instagram on September 14, 2020 to explain that her story has been decontextualized. At 2’36, she explains that “[s]The video, which was one minute and forty seconds long, was shortened by one minute, edited and used to disseminate the worldview and interests of a certain target group. ”She adds that she“ holds true ”[t] at [s]’clearly outstrip it “.

Other pictures published by the Vivantes group on Instagram show the exercise that took place in the Covid-19 treatment center in Jafféstrasse. These photos clearly bear the words “Exercise”.

The video therefore shows false Covid-19 patients in a hospital, during an exercise to train caregivers in a treatment center in Berlin, in September 2020.

The intox had already circulated since September 10, 2020 on Twitter accounts like here and Facebook like here.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, videos claim to show that it would only be a staging, with fake patients, like this intoxicating video explained by the Observers editorial staff.

>> READ ON THE OBSERVERS: This video filmed in Israel does not show a “fictitious pandemic television studio”