A video showing corpses wrapped in black bags inside a truck has been falsely shared as ‘fake COVID-19 bodies’ to amplify the narrative that the coronavirus is a hoax.
The video shows one of the men dressed as a corpse smoking, which is being shared as ‘drama’ created by the media to instill fear around COVID-19.
However, we found that the video dates back to 2020 and shows behind the scenes footage of a Russian music video for a rapper named, Husky. It’s not related to deaths due to COVID-19.
CLAIM
The video was shared with the caption,
“*कोरोना वायरस की तबाही
लाशों को ठिकाने लगाने और मीडिया में पेश करने का ड्रामा शुरू करने से पहले 'एक लाश' सिगरेट पीते हुए* *कोरोना एक बहुत बड़ी साजिश लगती है।”
(Translate: “Coronavirus wreaks havoc. A ‘corpse’ smoking a cigarette before the media starts the drama of disposing off the corpses. Corona seems to be a very big conspiracy.”)
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
With a reverse image search of one of the keyframes of the viral video, we came across several links to the same video, including one on DailyMotion that was a clearer version of the same video.
By zooming in we noticed that the video belonged to the TikTok handle, ‘vasyaivanovdesigns’.
We looked up Vasya Ivanov on Google and came across his Instagram profile. Ivanov is a production designer and he had uploaded a picture of corspses in black bags hanging from a building, which looked similar to the one in the viral video, in October 2020.
According to the caption of the image, the set-up was a part of a shoot for a music video for rapper, Husky’s song ‘Ever’.
We looked up the music video and noticed that one of the scenes has the same orange truck as the one in the viral video.
Further, the Instagram post indicated that the shoot took place at the Moscow Regional Research Clinical Institute. We looked up the location on Google Maps and found that the building looked similar to the one in the viral video.
Russian television network, Ren TV had also reported in September 2020 that the shooting of the video caused quite a stir in the area as residents felt uncomfortable with the corpses hanging from the hospital building.
“Producer Mikhail Marizov noted that mannequins are used in the work,” the article reads.
Russian news website, ‘Life Новости’ had also reported on the music video.
Evidently, a video of the behind-the-scenes action for a music video has been falsely shared as ‘fake’ COVID-19 corpses to further the narrative that coronavirus is a conspiracy.
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