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My Name Is...: My Name Is Fozia

My Name Is Fozia

BBC Radio 4 - My Name Is..., My Name Is Fozia

Dr Fozia Hayat received malicious messages as she battled to save patients with covid-19.

Dr Fozia Hayat investigates the dangers of fake news and finds out what can be done to end reports which leave people fearful of coming to hospitals even when they're seriously ill

Fozia was surprised to be bombarded with fake news as she worked on the covid wards and even more shocked to discover that some of the messages were coming from prominent people in the local community. They accused doctors of forcing people to sign Do Not Resuscitate forms, suggested that Covid-19 didn't actually exist and one even told her she would be: “held responsible in the court of Allah for the deaths of these people, for negligence in this life, and life is very short." 

“I've been sent a message saying that NHS workers are working on bonuses, that we're taking money for putting Covid on death certificates and we are essentially taking money for life. And I think that's a really cruel thing to say to someone," said Fozia.

She talks to a patient on the hospital’s intensive care unit, Mohammed Azeem, who says he deliberately put off coming to hospital because he’d been hearing the claims on social media. By the time an ambulance was called he was dangerously ill and had to be placed straight on a ventilator. His life hung in the balance for weeks and his mother died before he regained consciousness. He says he has realised the dangers of fake news and wants to help alert others.

As part of her investigation Fozia challenges some of those behind the conspiracy theories which are so prevalent online. She speaks to the anti-5G campaigner, Mark Steel, who says that no one is safe from the alleged impact of 5G and the latest electromagnetic wave induced pandemic. She also hears from a hospital worker who admits to following the conspiracy theories and siding with them even in light of the impact she sees on the wards and her medical training.

In the African community the fear is prevalent in a group of mothers she meets: they are so worried that even if a vaccine became available they wouldn’t think about taking it. One woman tells her that covid-19 is a device being used to eradicate different ethnic groups and that no one is safe. The higher death rate amongst the BAME community is just further evidence that a cleansing policy of some kind is in operation.

Fozia laments the problems fake news is causing on the wards at her hospital, the Bradford Royal Infirmary, which serves a very diverse community. Her colleague, Dr Sam Khan, shares a video his parents have seen circulating on major news channels in Pakistan. It purports to show how vaccines distributed by Bill Gates involve secret microchips. Dr Khan believes the fears were partly fuelled by the hospital’s justifiable policy of not allowing visitors at the start of the pandemic.

In Accident and Emergency Fozia chats to Dr Dave Greenhorn and Sister Emma Clinton, who recently saw a patient too ill to save. Following his death from covid-19 his children turned on them, accusing medical staff of giving their father a lethal injection. For Emma and Dave it was a harrowing moment and it really hit home how difficult the task ahead is. Even publicising the good news stories and focusing on patients who get better and go home does not detract from the widespread fear.

Producer: Sue Mitchell
Presented by Dr Fozia Hayat

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