CLAIM
A photo of some doctors and/or nurses lying seemingly dead in what appears to be a hospital operation theatre is going viral with the claim that over 200 doctors and nurses have died in Italy owing to the novel coronavirus.
The message being shared with the photo reads “Over 200 doctor's and nurse's dead in Italy 🇮🇹 God please protect the world 🌏 from this COVID-19 virus 🙏🏽🙏🏽 (sic)”
Many others shared the same post on Facebook.
This comes amid the crisis in Italy where deaths due to the coronavirus pandemic have crossed 20,000.
TRUE OR FALSE?
This is fake news and the photo is not from Italy, but is a actually a scene from the popular television show Grey’s Anatomy. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the coronavirus outbreak.
WHAT WE FOUND
On running a reverse search on the photo in the post, we came across results that led us to the long-running and popular medical drama Grey’s Anatomy.
One of the results was an article on the entertainment website Fandom, which spoke about the 14th episode of season three of the show, and also carried the viral photo with the caption “The staff in the OR are all unconscious due to the patient having toxic blood.”
According to the summary of the episode, the patient’s blood had become toxic, causing all the staff in the operation room to become unconscious.
Another website called Odyssey also carried an article, which had the same photo and carried the same explanation.
We also checked the stated episode once, and found that it was indeed a scene from Season Three Episode 14 of Grey’s Anatomy.
Therefore, it is clear that a scene from a television show is being falsely shared to claim that 200 doctors and nurses have died in Italy.
However, it is true that Italy has been badly affected by the coronavirus crisis and many doctors have also died. According to an Al Jazeera report dated 10 April, 100 doctors had died in Italy as of that day since February.
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