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LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA - AUGUST 10: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Clinicians work on intubating a COVID-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital on August 10, 2021 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hospitalizations for COVID-19 surpassed another record in the state yesterday to 2,720 with Louisiana as one of the nation's epicenters while the spread of the Delta variant continues. More than ninety percent of Louisiana's hospitalized COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated. Lake Charles Memorial currently holds 52 COVID-19 patients, 25 of whom are in the ICU.
Many social media users are sharing videos online that claim the Canadian province of Alberta imposed coronavirus restrictions in the region after it failed to prove the existence of COVID-19.
The rumors have been proven false after the office of the health minister of Alberta released a statement revealing that the lifting of public health measures did not have any relation to the case portrayed in the viral videos. Authorities have reported the continued spread of the coronavirus infection across nations worldwide, including Canada.
Coronavirus Pandemic a Hoax?
One of the uploaded videos showed a Canadian resident who was introduced as Patrick King being interviewed on a show called the "Stew Peters Show." The video was captioned with writing that said, "Patriot Patrick King represented himself in court after being fined $1,200 dollars for protesting against the COVID-Hoax, he slew the beast and emerged VICTORIOUS."
The video caption also noted that the individual issued a subpoena to the Provincial Health Minister as proof that the coronavirus did not exist. King noted they were forced to say that they had no evidence to prove their claims, Reuters reported.
The footage showed King saying he issued the subpoena against Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health (CMOH) for Alberta. The issuance allegedly came after the individual was given a ticket for violating COVID-19 restrictions.
In an analysis, it was found that King did not win the court case the video claims he did; but rather, he had to pay a fine for violating restrictions. Officials reassured that COVID-19 restrictions in Alberta were not lifted because of the case. Medical experts said the reason for the lifting of restrictions was due to high vaccination rates that made severe symptoms less likely.
The claim that COVID-19 is a hoax that the video is spreading is categorized as false and there are already more than 4.3 million people worldwide that have lost their lives to the disease. The lifting of Alberta's coronavirus restrictions is due to the high number of vaccinated individuals, reported to be 66.9% of residents as of August 10, 2021, Snopes reported.
Realizing Their Mistakes
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have doubted the existence of the virus that has already taken millions of lives worldwide. One of them, Alabama resident Curt Carpenter, believed that the coronavirus pandemic was just a hoax made by world governments.
Like him, his mother, Christy Carpenter, had reservations about the truth behind the COVID-19 vaccines. The mother said her son thought COVID-19 was not real and did not take the pandemic seriously. She noted her son's perspective changed when he started having difficulty breathing after contracting the virus.
On the day that Curt was put on ventilation, he told his family, "This is not a hoax, this is real." The 28-year-old son, who had autism, died on May 2 after fighting against the disease for two months in the hospital. Christy said that it took watching her son die to realize the severity and reality of the health crisis, Ledger-Enquirer reported.
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