NBC Truthers: Tiffany Dover is Dead
In December of 2020, a nurse named Tiffany Dover volunteered to
become one of the first Americans to get a COVID vaccine—and to do it
on live TV. “I'm sorry, I'm feeling really dizzy. I'm sorry,” Dover said after
getting the injection. Then she fainted. Dover came to almost
immediately and explained that she was fine, and that she passes out
pretty often when she feels pain. But thousands of people on the internet
had already made up their minds: Tiffany Dover was dead. And they were
going to prove it.
Truthers is a new audio series from NBC News misinformation reporter
Brandy Zadrozny. In the first season, she’ll take listeners through the
pandemic’s weirdest and most lingering conspiracy theory—and, with any
luck, put it to rest for good. Along the way, we’ll meet the people who
create and even gamify these conspiracy theories, and some of the
people who’ve become collateral damage. We’ll learn how a longstanding
network of anti-vaxxers used the COVID crisis—and the charisma of one
of America’s most legendary names—to gain national influence. Above
all, we’ll explore what’s at stake in this new era of misinformation, and
what, if anything, can be done to restore sanity.