A post claiming
British PM Boris Johnson did not have the coronavirus has been shared on
social media.
The post, which was
originally written as satire but since has been shared in a way that
has led some social media users to react in
anger, claims two doctors who treated Johnson at St Thomas’
hospital in London said his condition was “contrived”.
“‘He had the
most pathetic, contrived cough I have heard in all my years
of practise! I’d’ve sent him home with a packet of Lockets and
bottle of Calcough Children’s Syrup’ - Knott. ‘If he had Covid-19
then I’m not a doctor!” - Pullin,” the post reads.
Johnson
first entered hospital on April 5 after suffering from the symptoms of COVID-19
for more than a week. He spent a week in hospital, including three
nights in intensive care, before being discharged on April 12.
The claim
on social media first appeared in the Facebook group ‘A Poke in the
Eye With a Sharp Wit’ in a post by social media user
Anthony George. The group describes itself as “a place for
political humour and satire, poking fun at those in the government of
the day.”
Anthony
George told Reuters he wrote the post as satire in
a group where it would be viewed as
such. “There was nothing personal intended towards Boris Johnson
himself indeed, had it been Jeremy Corbyn or any other PM, I would
have said the same,” he said.
It
has since spread online, with some believing it to be
true. “Contrived cough, fake symptoms and taking up an intensive care bed
which was probably needed by a genuine covid 19
patient,” one comment reads.
The
doctors mentioned in the post are not real. No doctors
named Shirley Knott and Ashleigh Pullin appear on the General Medical
Council (GMC) medical register.
George said
their names are a nod to them being fictitious:
“Shirley Knott - surely not” and “Ashleigh Pullen - actually pulling (your
leg)”.
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