Did 'Dr Aisha' fake her coronavirus infection?

On July 31, 2020, a Twitter post by a Dr Aisha took social media by storm. The doctor claimed she was not coping with Covid-19. Sympathies and good wishes poured in as people expressed their grief and wished the one suffering a speedy recovery. The post was later unavailable, creating a controversy around its authenticity.

What was the post?

An alleged doctor, Dr Aisha, posted on Twitter that she had contracted coronavirus and needed ventilator support. The post read, "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 (and then two emojis)".

Post garners attention

Immediately, the post went viral, with numerous users including well-known people retweeting and praying for her speedy recovery. Journalist Nidhi Razdan tweeted, "This is the saddest story you'll see today. A reminder the COVID can kill even young people. We have no business being careless."

The smiling face of Dr Aisha became a symbol of the fight against coronavirus. The account further posted "Keep Aisha in your prayer. The more here friends and family pray for her, she may recover from this virus." These tweets were posted from South Africa.

And then, after the news of her death, the grief reached a crescendo. Her alleged brother Dr Sakar tweeted the news via her handle. "I am Dr Aisha's sister Dr Sarkar. I had Aisha phone as she was not allowed a phone in her isolation. A request from her should anything happen to inform her friends on social media. We were handed a sealed coffin due to the virus. I will be deleting all her social media accounts," the tweet said.

Real sympathy, but fake disease?

But Dr Aisha's tragic tale soon raised doubts over the authenticity of the tweets as a reverse image search of her photo showed that the image was old. It was allegedly taken from a website named 'Confluence Health'. Furthermore, the picture was taken during dental treatment, or more specifically, during the anaesthetic treatment.

Several Twitter profiles also said that the hospital bedsheet revealed that Aisha wasn't at any South African hospital, but rather in the 'Life hospital' located in Kamareddy (Telangana).

Moreover, netizens pointed out that many of Dr Aisha's tweets that went viral were copies of other viral tweets.

After such revelations, like many others, Nidhi 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.”

The saga has also brought forth social media's viral claims that allow users to share their own sorrow to garner sympathy without verifying the original claims. Dr Aisha's fake disease story has seen several parallel examples across emails and other social media where unverified social problems continue to see retweets, reposts and shares without attribution to authenticity.