Fact Check-Collage of health officials looking unwell includes altered image, misleading screengrab
With over 130,000 likes on Instagram, a compilation of images circulating online appears to show health officials from different countries looking unwell. The collage, however, includes an altered image and a screengrab taken out of context.
Posts are viewable on Instagram: ( here , here , here , here , here ) and Facebook ( here , here , here , here , here ).
Comments include: “You can not be a health minister and not be healthy… (sic)”, “Don’t none of those people look healthy” and “None look human…. SHAPE SHIFTING.”
L.A. COUNTY HEALTH DIRECTOR
Reuters previously addressed this altered image of Los Angeles County Health Director Barbara Ferrer in May 2020 ( here ).
The image shows Ferrer speaking at a coronavirus news conference on May 13, 2020; the unedited version can be seen in an article by Deadline here.
The picture has been visibly altered to include prominent dark circles under her eyes and to make her skin appear paler.
Other footage of Ferrer can be seen bit.ly/39JVNei , bit.ly/3kRXgWl , bit.ly/3F7jBY3 , bit.ly/3m3U7BV .
ENGLAND’S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
The collage features an image of Professor Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical adviser, during an interview with BBC Breakfast on Jan 11, 2021 ( here ).
His eyes and mouth appear twisted. However, when reviewing the footage of the exchange, Reuters found this is to be a momentary effect of the screenshot being taken while Whitty was talking, after briefly looking down. A similar shot can be seen around timestamp 00:37 ( youtu.be/ZjF_xpzcRT0?t=37 ).
Reuters photographs of Whitty are viewable here , here , here .
CANADIAN HEALTH OFFICER
Another iteration circulating online ( here , here ) includes an edited image of Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, previously debunked by Reuters here.
BELGIAN HEALTH MINISTER
Posts also include an image of Maggie De Block, Belgium’s former Health Minister, visible in a 2013 article by Belgian public broadcaster RTBF here .
De Block, who served between 2014 and 2020, has openly talked about her weight as reported by RTBF ( here, here).
U.S. ASSISTANT HEALTH SECRETARY
The collage also features an image of Dr Rachel Levine, U.S. assistant health secretary ( here ) and the first openly transgender official to be confirmed by the Senate, viewable here.
Levine has addressed the mockery and often transphobic misinformation targeted at her in the past ( here , here ).
Reuters has previously debunked other false claims about Levine here, here.
VERDICT
Misleading. Compilation of images of health officials looking unwell includes altered pictures and a screengrab that has been taken out of context.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.
