On Monday, CBS News was forced to issue an embarrassing “clarification” after the network ran with an apparently unverified video concerning a crying nurse from Chicago.
“In tears, a nurse says she quit her job after she was asked to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask: ‘America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected,'” CBS captioned a video of the nurse in question, later identified as nurse and lifestyle blogger Imaris Vera.
“I quit my job today,” Vera says in the viral video, tears streaming down her face. “I wanted to 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,” she claimed, “not even surgical masks in the hallways when they’re giving report to each other.”
“I had my own N95 mask,” the woman continued. “I told my manager, I understand we’re short on supplies, but let me protect myself, let me feel safe. I have family that I have to come home to, and the way things are looking, this isn’t gonna get any better.”
“America is not prepared and nurses are not being protected,” Vera closed the video, which, as of Monday, has racked up over 7.2 million views.
CBS, which apparently picked up the video from the blogger’s heavily trafficked Instagram page, added sad music and a video caption: “This nurse had to make a difficult decision in order to protect herself and family members with pre-existing conditions.”
Upon watching the gut-wrenching video and reading the outlet’s captions, one could only assume Vera and fellow nurses were not given any masks.
But this was apparently not the case.
CBS News posted a follow-up “clarification” on Monday: “Imaris Vera, the nurse in this video, clarified her experience on Monday in a tweet: ‘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.'”
“The hospital, Northwestern Medicine, acknowledged that Imaris Vera had quit her job, but referred CBS News to Vera as to the details of why,” the news outlet added.
The hospital, Northwestern Medicine, acknowledged that Imaris Vera had quit her job, but referred CBS News to Vera as to the details of why.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 6, 2020
Vera had apparently not worked at the hospital for over a year before going in and quitting, according to messages she has posted online.
“Prior to CBS picking up this video, Imaris posted on her public Facebook page that she has anxiety and bi-polar depression and had not been an employee at the hospital for over a year. She mentioned in her post that she was unsure if she was ready to return to her job,” The Federalist reported Monday. “Imaris also said the growing volume of information on coronavirus ‘triggers’ her.”
In one message allegedly posted by Vera, she wrote: “The information overload can be hard for me to sift through as far as what is credible and what is not, it triggers me.”
“Nurses and medical workers are working tirelessly with inadequate protection gear, and they are the real heroes,” The Federalist noted. “For an Instagram ‘influencer’ to deliberately misrepresent her career for the instant glorification of internet fame is sickening.”
WATCH:
In tears, a nurse says she quit her job after she was asked to work in a coronavirus ICU without a face mask: “America is not prepared, and nurses are not being protected” https://t.co/ywoSuLOPYP pic.twitter.com/S5BsnlO5nt
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 5, 2020