This Nurse’s Viral Sob Story Got Everyone’s Attention. Then It Fell Apart

A viral video shows a nurse who suggested she was forced to quit her job after being asked to work in a novel coronavirus unit without a face mask, but it appears that there is far more to her story.

The claims made in the video have quickly fallen apart, as the nurse’s comments about those working in the unit being unprotected appear to have been walked back. Jordan Schachtel, the national security correspondent for Conservative Review, pointed out numerous glaring problems with the video in a Twitter thread Monday morning.

“In tears, a nurse says she quit her job after she was asked to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask,” CBS News claimed in a tweet. The video was also shared by Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Even the Daily Caller, going off initial reports, produced its own video. The video has since been stripped off Facebook and YouTube.

WATCH:

So it turns out this video is entirely fraudulent. https://t.co/2axIrXK4LA

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) April 6, 2020

The video shows a nurse in tears shortly after quitting her job. She said she was assigned a COVID-19 patient and that she was not allowed to wear her own N95 mask outside of the unit.

“I quit my job today,” the woman, who goes by the name Imaris on social media, said in her video. “I went into work and I was assigned to a COVID patient on an ICU unit that has been converted to a designated COVID unit. None of the nurses are wearing masks, not even surgical masks, in the hallways when they’re giving reports to each other.”

“I had my own N95 mask. I told my manager, ‘I understand we’re short on supplies, but let me protect myself. Let me feel safe.'”

The woman’s initial story indicated that she was “not allowed to wear masks around any1 [sic] even COVID patient,” Schachtel tweeted. After Sanders tweeted about her story, the nurse began to clarify.

Bottom line: Hospital did have adequate supply of PPE & masks & was taking proper precautions, while making prudent decision not to blow through supplies. She shows up, 1st day on job, wants to break protocol & do her own thing. They say no. She quits & goes full crisis actor.

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) April 6, 2020

Those working in the unit were, in fact, assigned one “N95 per 1 covid patient’s room,” Imaris clarified. This was not included in her original report, where she claimed that “nurses are not being protected.” (RELATED: CBS News Says ‘Editing Mistake’ Led To Misleading Video Showing An Italian Hospital During Segment On New York’s Coronavirus Crisis)

“We were each assigned 1 N95 per 1 covid patient’s room but was not allowed to wear it outside of the room, wear our own N95 mask around the Nurses station or Halls, which I came prepared with,” a tweet appearing to be from the same nurse reads.

It is insane that our nurses are being forced to care for the sick without masks and respirators. The Department of Labor must immediately issue emergency workplace standards to protect our health workers, their families, and their patients. https://t.co/Z8dWqtxz5X

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) April 5, 2020

Not only did the video mislead by suggesting nurses were not being adequately covered while treating COVID-19 patients, but the woman in the video also failed to note her career background. In a Facebook that appears to match the woman in the video, she writes on March 26 that she has been “off of work for about two weeks now.”

Imaris also appears to have tweeted that she would be “going back to workin [sic] the #icu in four days” on March 26. This indicates that she quit on her very first day back on the job. Imaris also appears to be attempting to transition to a social media influencer, according to her Instagram.

The nurse admitted that she suffers from “anxiety and bi-polar depression.” Imaris noted that she was “feeling a heavy toll with transitioning back into the ICU after being away from the bedside for over a year,” according to a post shared by Schachtel. That post was written before her first day back on the job.

So she had been on the job for a day or two, after taking a year off to pursue something resembling an Instagram model career, and she “quit” because of the conditions. Deliberate misrepresentation of her career means you cannot take her other statements at face value.

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) April 6, 2020

“I just want EVERYONE TO KNOW: I have never and will never turn my back on Nursing,” Imaris posted on Facebook April 1. “I am currently looking for other COVID Nursing jobs where I know I’ll feel SAFE & not be told I can’t wear my own mask/PPE.