New Delhi: The viral “selfie” of ‘Dr Aisha’, identified as a young doctor who succumbed to Covid-19, had been circulating on social media for the past few weeks and was a top trending topic Sunday. Both the selfie and the news of her “death” have turned out to be fake.
The viral image showing the young woman on a hospital bed was posted by a handle, called ‘Dr Aisha’, on 31 July, and the caption claimed that she had contracted Covid-19 and needed ventilator support.
“Going to be hooked to the ventilator sometime today, remember me, my smile to you…” the tweet read.
Later, another photo that showed a patient intubated was shared by the same handle. The tweet asked people to keep ‘Dr Aisha’ in their prayers.
Another tweet followed, this time by a user named Dr Amarinder Malhi, who is “former president of the Resident Doctors’ Association in AIIMS” according to his bio, that claimed ‘Dr Aisha’ died due to the infection.
“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!” he said in the since-deleted post that he had shared quote-tweeting the original post.
However, soon after, users noticed that the image that purportedly showed ‘Dr Aisha’ being intubated was in fact a stock image regularly used by several websites since 2017.
Nice technique to gain followers.
Link : https://t.co/rIIC9GQOFF https://t.co/0u0imJdAL6 pic.twitter.com/EX2DIGzKUE
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) August 2, 2020
Post, account deleted
Several people, including journalist Nidhi Razdan, shared the tweet with the selfie, offering condolences. There were also some news reports on the death.
Some users also hailed ‘Dr Aisha’ as a “Covid warrior”.
RIP young Dr. You were the COVID warrior to save our brothers and sisters. You gave them life. We all are indebted. May god rest you soul in peace.
— Arun (@YankeeAFriend) August 2, 2020
https://twitter.com/themohdhssn/status/1289879460494209025?s=20
With condolences pouring in from a number of Twitter handles, ‘Dr Aisha’ became one of the top trending topics in India on Twitter.
However, after it was revealed that the account was fake, the post as well as the account were found to have been deleted.
Dr Malhi also deleted his tweet about the young doctor’s death.
Razdan, too, deleted her original tweet and issued a clarification: “Have deleted a previous tweet about a Dr Aisha. Turns out the account was fake ! You have to be really sick to pretend to have COVID.”
Have deleted a previous tweet about a Dr Aisha. Turns out the account was fake ! You have to be really sick to pretend to have COVID
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) August 2, 2020
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