by Alex Lloyd Gross
Across the globe, most people are taking precautionary measures to protect themselves from coronavirus. There are a lot of people that are not buying into the pandemic and consider it a “scam” or a conspiracy theory. What conspiracy depends on who you speak with. They have started a viral trend called #Film Your Hospital. They site lack of activity outside the building as a reason to not believe the pandemic is real. They do this by filming a local hospital from the outside with a cellphone, while they insert their own commentary. They try to convince you the coronavirus is a hoax. A quick search of Twitter with the hashtag Film your hospital” can show you.
This virus is invisible. Symptoms come on quick and strong. Let’s look at some facts and you can decide for yourself. First, people are not dying in the streets. Those that die are dying at home or at a hospital. Most people have put off elective surgeries which means hospitals have empty parking lots. Some staff at hospital have been furloughed, who are not essential workers.
At most facilities ,people arriving to emergency rooms are not not permitted to have visitors at all, More reason for empty parking lots. If they are brought in for any of the COVID-19 symptoms, they are given a flu test and a respiratory test. Should they come back negative, they are told to get a COVID-19 test. There are multiple testing sites around. In this area the test takes about 10 minutes. A recent intake at the regional test center at Citizen Bank Park saw an average of 200 people over five hours. With that being the average, there will not be long lines or a lot of activity. It also means little activity outside local hospitals.
What these people are doing is creating misinformation, many experts say. When you listen to Dr. Thomas Farley the city Health Commissioner in Philadelphia, or any county health director, they will tell you hospitals are getting filled. The people filming willy nilly with cell phones have no training, have done no interviews or research. In spite of that, hundreds of thousands of people watch these videos from all over the globe, including the United States. They are not trained journalists.They are looking for clicks and likes to their social media platform.
Inside, hospital staff are working 12 hour shifts or more. They are dealing with only the sickest of the COVID-19 cases and they still have to deal with the every day calls unrelated to COVID-19, like falls, shootings and animal bites. Inside hospitals, health practitioners dealing with COVID-19 cases are required to suit up in protective gear and tend to patients who are sick. In spite of that, the person filming the hospital from the outside has no clue as to what is going on inside.
Some of these people are the same people that flout stay at home orders and go outside, looking for things to do. In China, video has been smuggled out . Video like this
or this. show how real the pandemic is in Wuhan. In China, taking unauthorized video in the hospital could be punishable by death, or very long prison sentences. The trend of filming hospitals is growing on social media, to spread disinformation that the person believes to be fact. No matter what the situation is, there will always be people that think it is a conspiracy.
While some people are busy filming hospitals, everyone from celebrities to everyday people are coming down with COVID-19. Most recover, and never go to a hospital.