Tiffany Dover
Tiffany Dover is an American nurse who was among the first health care professionals to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in 2020. Rumors about her death were propagated by the anti-vaccine movement after she fainted on camera, although she quickly recovered.
Biography
Dover met the man who would become her husband at a young age. The couple has two children.[1] As of 2023, they live in Alabama.[2]
After graduating from college in nursing, Dover was employed in 2010 or 2011 at the CHI Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She worked in cardiac care, then in intensive and emergency care until she left the hospital in 2021.[1]
In 2020, she was a nurse manager in an interim capacity in the unit that was transformed into the hospital's COVID ward. Early in the pandemic, the unit experienced a heavy workload and a high death rate.[1]
COVID-19 vaccine roll-out
Dover was one of the first health care workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine (the one from Pfizer–BioNTech) at CHI Memorial Hospital, on December 17, 2020. As part of the roll-out of the vaccine, Dover and others were filmed and livestreamed while they were inoculated. She agreed to speak to local media 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine to promote the start of the vaccination effort. As the media scrum was starting, she said she was feeling dizzy and fainted before the cameras. Quickly recovered, she briefly spoke to a local television reporter, saying she was prone to fainting. She was able to go back to work.[1][3]
Dover would later explain she had very little to eat on that busy day and that she has a strong vagal response to pain, adding that fainting was fairly common for her.[1][3][4] The other health workers vaccinated at the same time at that location did not experience similar reactions.[3]
Aftermath of fainting video
That same day, the anti-vaccination movement had started to spread the theory that Dover died from a side effect from the vaccine. Over the following months, Dover's husband, children and other family members were contacted by people trying to get them to admit she had died, some showing up at their doorstep. A fake death certificate was circulated online and information containing a death date entered into genealogy websites. Paradoxically, Dover received death threats. Followers of the QAnon movement joined in the harassment.[1][5][6][7][8] The images of Dover fainting at the news event were included in anti-vaccination videos allegedly (and usually wrongly) documenting incidents of people dying or suffering heart problems shortly after getting a vaccine against COVID-19.[9]
Dover declined to publicly comment about the events of that day for more than two years. Both Dover and the hospital refused interview requests from reporters, but hospital spokespeople repeatedly indicated Dover was very much alive.[1] There were conflicting versions of how the decision was taken not to speak publicly. Dover has said she meant to explain what happened, but had been instructed by hospital executives not to do any interviews and to remain silent on social media, in reaction to the hospital being overwhelmed by harassing phone calls and emails. Hospital authorities have said no record of such an instruction exists. The hospital posted a 21-second video of Dover interacting with colleagues four days after the incident, however, with Dover being masked, silent and with a different haircut, the video did little to dispel the rumors.[1][10] Dover was reprimanded when she posted vacation photos on social media, triggering a new wave of phone calls and emails at the hospital.[1]
Dover gave an in-camera interview to NBC reporter Brandy Zadrozny in April 2023.[1]
Conspiracy theorists also harassed one of Dover's coworkers, Amber Honea, as well as members of Honea's family. The resemblance between the two nurses gave rise to internet rumors to the effect that Honea was acting as a body double to cover up Dover's alleged death.[1] Family members who posted on social media about Dover also became targets for harassment.[11]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Zadrozny, Brandy (10 April 2023). "Conspiracy theorists made Tiffany Dover into an anti-vaccine icon. She's finally ready to talk about it". NBC News. Archived from the original on 18 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Orlando, Joyce (11 April 2023). "What happened to Tiffany Dover the TN nurse made COVID-19 anti-vax poster child". Nashville Tennessean. Retrieved 20 April 2023.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Caldera, Camille (20 December 2020). "Fact check: Nurse who fainted after COVID-19 vaccine has an underlying health condition". USA Today. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Critical care nurse at CHI Memorial explains her fainting after COVID-19 vaccine (Video). Local 3 News. 18 December 2020.
- ↑ Zadrozny, Brandy (10 April 2023). "Special Episode: Tiffany Dover Speaks (podcast with transcript)". NBC. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023. Retrieved 19 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Caldera, Camille (23 December 2020). "Fact check: Nurse who fainted after COVID-19 vaccination is alive and well". USA Today. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Swenson, Ali (21 December 2020). "Claims that Tennessee nurse died after vaccine are baseless". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 16 January 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Fact check: Nurse who fainted after COVID-19 vaccine did not die". Reuters. 4 January 2021. Archived from the original on 29 January 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Lajka, Arijeta; Swenson, Ali (13 January 2023). "Video of people collapsing on camera doesn't show vaccine reactions". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 13 January 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Hospital shares video, support for Chattanooga nurse who fainted after receiving vaccine". WTVC. 21 December 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
- ↑ Putterman, Samantha (20 October 2021). "There's still no evidence a Tennessee nurse who fainted after getting the vaccine is dead". Politifact. Archived from the original on 21 October 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2023. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help)
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