Doctored images of health officials circulate online
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 21, 2021 at 22:54
- 3 min read
- By AFP Canada
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"When it comes to health ministers offering advise I personally tend to think they should be at least healthy or even human looking," says a September 14, 2021 Instagram post.
On Twitter, the same compilation of photos circulated under the text: "The Vaccine Sales Rep of the Year Competition is really heating up."
But two of the photos have been doctored. Below, AFP Fact Check examines the images.
Dr Theresa Tam
In addition to the compilation photos, some posts only feature the image of Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr Theresa Tam, including here on Facebook and here on Twitter.
A Google search for images of Tam led to this Toronto Star article from April 2020. The photo is credited to the Canadian Press.
Tam faced a public backlash over her comments on Covid-19, despite her mandate to advise the public and the government during the pandemic. The image in the posts appears substantially different in color from the original, with some facial features also being altered.
Dr Barbara Ferrer
A reverse image search in Google revealed that the photo of Ferrer, the director of the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, had already circulated on Twitter in 2020 and was flagged as manipulated media by the platform.
The image is a screenshot from a coronavirus briefing Ferrer gave on May 13, 2020. Footage of the press conference is available here.
The image of Ferrer, who said she received death threats over the measures she imposed to help stop the spread of Covid-19, was doctored to lighten her skin and darken her eyes.
Lead Stories also fact-checked these images.
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