A popular medical doctor and owner of an online clinic, Telemed Online Clinic, simply known as First Doctor, has apologised over a fake news regarding the spread of HIV in the federal capital territory, Abuja.
Recall that First Doctor posted on July 23, 2023 that out of 197 people Red Cross ran a HIV tests on, only 78 of them tested negative.
The post went viral, caused a lot of confusion and drew the attention of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA). The agency then reached out to Nigerian Red Cross Society, NRCS, for confirmation of the claim.
While tagging the Red Cross organisation, NACA wrote, “This information is passing around. Can you confirm when and where this outreach occurred with 60% prevalent rate?”
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In its response, NRCS debunked the news as fake and added that it is unethical for any organisation to disclose the status of their clients.
In a surprising u-turn, the purveyor of the fake statistics denied ownership of the stat. He revealed that he copied the post from someone who claimed to have gotten it from a WhatsApp he belonged to.
“I feel the need to make the following remarks regarding the event of last week in which I reposted a tweet from another twitter user about the HIV tests reportedly done in Abuja by a group from the Red Cross. My intention for reposting it was simple: to help create more awareness about the disease prevention. If you go through my page you will see that I frequently create public health awareness in a bit to contribute towards a healthier society.
“Second, after reading the National Action Committee on Aids (NACA) and Red Cross replies querying the source of the statistic in the tweet when I came back online, I immediately contacted the person who first posted it online regarding the source of the information in his earlier tweet, and also deleted my own repost. I got the attached screenshot from a WhatsApp group he says he belongs which was posted together with his original tweet.
“He also replied me that NACA had already contacted him and that he was waiting to give NACA staff any further information they requested regarding this.
“Third, while NACA is already investigating the said source of the information, I wish to unreservedly apologize to the public, NACA and the Red Cross for reposting an unconfirmed statement, and state clearly that I am open to collaborating with them to further improve HIV literacy and better sexual behaviours in our country. I have never and will never knowingly post any misleading information on my timeline because that defeats the very reason why I established my social handles to contribute towards a healthier and safer society.
“I remain resolute in my commitment towards using my social platforms to create genuine health awareness and educate the public as my way of giving back and contributing towards achieving a healthier and safer society,” he wrote.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
