Amid fear and anger, pandemic-skeptics are accusing doctors of lying about the virus.
MILAN — From “heroes” to “terrorists.” In Italy, the doctors and nurses lauded for their exhausting, dangerous work in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic are facing a new challenge: conspiracy theories accusing them of faking the emergency.
In one social media video, two women tell the camera they are in the emergency room at Sacco Hospital in Milan, one of the hardest-hit cities in Italy. They want to prove that the ER is empty, contrary to what is being reported by journalists, who have sounded the alarm about a drastic uptick in cases.
The women go inside the building, showing viewers a calm, empty interior. Next, they walk back outside to demonstrate there are no ambulances lined up. Doctors, journalists, and politicians have been lying, they say. “They are terrorists.”
The video, which was shared thousands of times, is a fake. The rooms it features are not located in the emergency wing of the hospital, which are in fact full. Nor does the video show the places outside the hospital where ambulances regularly wait, lined up one after another, to discharge seriously ill patients.
Similar accusations have proliferated on Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp and countless other mediums, where posters claim ambulances are driving around aimlessly without patients on board, or turning on their sirens simply to scare people.
Others share images of deserted hospitals and theorize that doctors fabricated the emergency so they can earn more money. Still others recommend eating avocados to keep at bay a virus they insist is no more serious than a flu.
“If during the first wave we were called heroes, now someone has changed their mind,” said Andrea Artoni, a hematologist who works in a COVID-19 ward at the Milan Polyclinic. “We are tired, fatigued and we work exhausting shifts trying to put all the energy we have into saving those who get sick.”
It’s not easy to face a second wave of the pandemic just six months after the first, he said. “To those who deny the existence of this virus, I can only say to come and take a tour in one of our departments. Come and see how our people die suffocating, alone and lucid.”
Appeals like Artoni’s fall on deaf ears among those who have ventured far enough down the rabbit hole, armed with false theories about the severity of the global pandemic.
According to the deniers, the health emergency is an invention of the media, a distorted narrative peddled by politicians and powerful people who are seeking to manipulate the world from behind the stage curtain.
Source: Politico
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