This doctored image does not show Donald Trump in hospital after he contracted Covid-19
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 9, 2020 at 08:15
- 2 min read
- By AFP Hong Kong
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The image was published here on Weibo on October, 4, 2020.
It purports to show a man with blonde hair receiving hospital treatment.
The post’s simplified Chinese-language caption translates to English as: “Widely shared in Taiwan and on Instagram, not sure if it’s true or not #TrumpDevelopedSymptomsSuchAsFever#”.
On October 2, 2020, Trump announced on Twitter he and First Lady Melania Trump had tested positive for Covid-19, as AFP reported here.
The same image was also included in online forum posts here, here and here alongside a similar claim.
The claim is misleading; the image has been doctored.
A reverse image search on Google found this image credited to Kiryl Lis on Adobe Stock.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the doctored image (L) and the Adobe Stock picture credited to Kiryl Lis (R):
The Adobe Stock picture has been doctored to include blonde hair in the misleading posts. The original image shows a person with grey hair.
The picture’s caption states: “Intubated adult white man under ventilator lying in coma in intensive care department. Patient in critical state.”
The same picture of a person with grey hair was published in this April 30, 2020 article by US daily newspaper Tahlequah Daily Press and this May 2, 2020 article by US magazine Pharmacy Practice News.
Both articles were published several months before Trump revealed he had tested positive for Covid-19.
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