A nurse adopted as an anti-vaxx heroine after passing out following a Covid jab in 2020 has finally spoken out to dispel once and for all the insane myth that she died from the vaccine.
Tiffany Dover, a nurse manager at CHI Memorial Hospital in Tennessee, completely removed herself from the public eye after footage showed her collapsing after receiving the jab.
The footage showed her grabbing her forehead and apologising to a camera crew for feeling “dizzy” before falling from a chair into the arms of two nurses.
One clip of the incident, which did not show her swift recovery, was shared widely on social media and hijacked by vaccine sceptics, who dedicated entire pages to her death.
They also shared unfounded theories that speculated the use of a body double.
One video included a “skeletal analysis” of what it claimed was Ms Dover before and after fainting. The video’s author claimed “fake Tiffany” had the wrong hair and the wrong eyebrows.
“I don’t know what is going on here … see how different that looks,” he said. “I don’t know who this woman is or what this is.”
Ms Dover told WRCB Channel 3 News after waking up that she had a “sinkable episode”.
“I have a history of having an overactive vagal response. If I have pain from anything … I can just pass out,” she said.
“I get a feeling of being weak, dizzy, disoriented but I’m fine now. The pain in my arm is very minimal but it doesn’t take much.”
At the time, she said she had “passed out six times in the past six weeks” and “it’s very common for me”.
“I could feel it coming on and I was trying to push through,” Ms Dover said.
Her comments however went entirely ignored by conspiracy theorists, who had already committed to believing she was actually dead.
Now, almost three years later, she has revealed why she went silent while theories about her death were pedalled, and has disclosed wishing she took a different approach.
Speaking with NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny, she said going dark ended up being fuel for the conspiracy theorists.
“That would’ve been a perfect moment for us to speak out,” she said.
“Yes, I did pass out. This could be a side effect. You can pass out from receiving a vaccine, but that’s OK because it can also save your life. So it’s worth it.
“The silence is what flamed this.”
Ms Dover claimed to have been advised by the hospital not to respond to any comments on social media, nor issue a public statement about what happened.
Four days after the incident, the hospital released its official response – a short Facebook video showing Ms Dover surrounded by co-workers wearing masks and holding signs with the date on them and messages like, “nursing leadership supports Tiffany”.
The video did little to quell theories about her death and ultimately inflamed them.
She had her hair done differently to normal, had to wear an ill-fitting coat, and like the rest of the staff in the video, was not allowed to say anything.
“It wasn’t a good look for us … It made people suspicious, because if I’m OK, why am I not just talking? Why are we standing there?” she said.
The video also gave way to a new theory that Amber Honea, a colleague of Ms Dover who she looks similar to, had been used as her “body double” for the clip.
Ms Dover had refrained from speaking out for so long because she was hesitant to trust the media, but decided recently she wanted to tell her story.