CLAIM
Amidst growing global panic over COVID-19, visuals of a woman advising people to take the novel coronavirus seriously are doing the rounds on social media.
The video is being shared with the claim that the patient seen in the video is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Trudeau, who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus on 12 March.
The woman can be heard warning people against smoking and advises them ‘not to take any chances.’ Recording the video from what appears to be an ICU, she can be seen severely coughing and struggling with shortness of breath.
The video was widely shared on social media platforms with the caption, “Watch the video of Canadian PM Justin trudeau's wife Sophie Trudeau.. For people who are still not taking it seriously.”
A Facebook user by the name of Sameera Aziz shared the video, which had garnered over 23,000 views at the time of writing this story.
Many other Facebook users also shared this video with the exact same claim.
TRUE OR FALSE?
False.
The woman in the video is not Sophie Trudeau but Tara Jane Langston, a 39-year-old who was diagnosed with pneumonia at the Hillingdon Hospital in west London.
She recorded this video for her work colleagues and the public, to make them aware about the seriousness of COVID-19. She first began feeling unwell 11 days ago, after a holiday to Krakow, Poland, with her husband and two daughters, Daily Mirror reported.
WHAT’S THE TRUTH?
After breaking down the video into several key frames using the Google Extension InVID and conducting a reverse image search using Yandex, we came across an article by Daily Mirror, a British Daily, that said Langston warned the public through the video ‘not to take any chances’ against COVID-19.
The visuals of the video in the article matched with that of the viral video.
We found another article by a British newspaper, Metro, titled “Gym-going mum, 39, in intensive care says coronavirus is like having glass in your lungs.”
According to the report, Langston had initially been diagnosed with a chest infection, before her condition worsened and she was rushed to Hillingdon Hospital in west London.
Therefore, the video of a British woman is being shared with a misleading claim that the visuals are of Canadian PM’s wife, Sophie Trudeau.
You can read all our fact-checked stories on coronavirus here.
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