This photo does not show a recent BFMTV report in a French hospital

The screenshot of a BFMTV report appearing to show a dummy in intensive care is shared as proof that French hospitals are artificially inflating the number of patients in intensive care because of Covid-19. This is false: this image is an assembly using a dressing resembling that of BFMTV. The original report, shot in Canada in April 2020, and not recently in France, showed the operation of a service to treat patients with Covid.

"Despite the repeated efforts of specialized teams, a new model could not be resuscitated this morning", quips a user in a tweet shared more than 3,300 times since December 10.

His message is accompanied by an image showing the bust of an armless mannequin surrounded by caregivers, on a hospital bed. At the bottom of the image is a banner indicating "Castex tested positive for Covid-19", and at the top left the logo of the continuous news channel as well as the time "22:21", suggesting that the report would be recent since Prime Minister Jean Castex tested positive on November 22, 2021.

"Quiet propaganda made in BFM", indignantly a user who relays this tweet.

"That's why there are no more places in hospitals", comments a surfer, while another asks "are the actors too recognizable?".

The image also circulated with similar claims in Portuguese, Spanish and English.

A report shot in Canada

A reverse image search in the Yandex search engine leads to an occurrence of the image, which does not include, this time, the banner of the BFMTV channel . Similar images showing models also have a logo where it says "Quebec".

A search of the terms "dummy + simulation + covid + hospital + Canada" leads to a verification article published by Radio Canada on October 8, 2021: "No, these mannequins on hospital beds are not fake patients covid".

The fact-check explains that one of the images of models comes from a report broadcast by Radio Canada on April 17, 2020 and entitled: "At the heart of a Covid-19 hospital".

The description reads: "Dive right into the heart of the reality of healthcare workers who go to work every day to fight COVID-19. Bruno Savard takes the tour with Dr. Mathieu Simon, pulmonologist and head of intensive care unit of the University Institute of Cardiology and Pulmonology of Quebec.”

This report shows the exact moment when the screenshot circulating in France with the BFMTV logo was taken.

From the first seconds of the video, the journalist asks: "Dr Simon, when we go through the doors, when we find ourselves in the Covid zone, what do we find, what does it look like, haven't seen that yet?'

"I couldn't take you there out of protection for you, obviously, when you pass the Covid zone, you see above all very dedicated staff", then answers Doctor Mathieu Simon.

This sequence was shot at the start of the pandemic, at a time when Quebec "was not very affected by the Covid", specifies the doctor, explaining that the establishment was then receiving patients from other regions. , most affected by the pandemic.

Another Canadian establishment, the Center hospitalier de l'université de Montréal, has also been accused of inflating its number of patients in intensive care because of Covid-19 using mannequins, also explaining to AFP having made the choice to take the journalist to a "training room reserved for nursing staff at the CHU" and not in a "hot zone" in order to "minimize the risks".

A banner superimposed on the original image

The BFMTV banner has been added to the original image. The "Forensic" tool of the InVid software, co-developed by AFP, and available here seems to detect a difference in pixels, often synonymous with manipulation, precisely at the bottom, where the BFMTV banner appears, as well as at the location of the channel's logo and time at the top left.

Many online tools or software allow you to create, in a few clicks, a look similar to those of news channels.

A video of Gabriel Attal had thus been manipulated in November, to make believe that a recent speech by the government spokesperson on the upcoming presidential election, while the images dated from February.