FACT CHECK: Did A French News Channel Film Mannequins Posing As COVID-19 Patients?
An image shared on Instagram purportedly shows a French news network filming a mannequin disguised as a COVID-19 hospital patient.
View this post on Instagram
Verdict: False
The image is a screen grab from a COVID-19 simulation video filmed by a Canadian university. The French news banner has been edited onto the image.
Fact Check:
The image shows two nurses standing around a mannequin laying on a hospital bed. The figure can be seen in a large plastic tube with arms missing out of the socket. (RELATED: Does This Video Show People Posing As COVID-19 Fatalities ‘For The News’?)
“France: Hospitals are so saturated with the omicron variant that there is not even time to put arms to the mannequins for the media…” text within the image reads, while the caption alleges, “The new variant will make your arms fall off. Wowwwww … and there still are many who think the Fake News and your government don’t lie….”
A reverse image search revealed the picture is not from a French news segment. It originated from a YouTube video published by the University Institute of Cardiology and Pulmonology of Quebec (UICPQ) in April 2020. The video has a French title that roughly translates to, “The Institute in the time of COVID-19: simulation in intensive care.” The video focuses on a hypothetical scenario of a COVID-19 patient being treated in the UICPQ intensive care unit.
The French news banner included in the post can be seen in a BFM TV news segment that aired Nov. 22, 2021. The segment covered the news that France’s prime minister, Jean Castex, had tested positive for COVID-19 at the time. The image featured in the Instagram post does not appear in the clip linked on BFM TV’s website nor in any of its articles regarding COVID-19.
