PROBLEM SOLVED - Conspiracy Image About the Ebola Emergency

[Juanne Pili]

Hello everyone,

I hope this is the right section to post this in. At the moment I'm not really able to carry out a proper fact-check on this myself, so I'm hoping someone here might be able to help.

I'm trying to find the original source of this screenshot. I know where it is currently being shared in conspiracy circles, but I can't find the actual video or photo it was taken from before the arrows were added.

Does anyone know when it dates from, or what context it belongs to? It might possibly come from an old news report.

I've been looking into this for about a week, but I haven't been able to get to the bottom of it. Any help would be very welcome.

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

This video appears to contain the screenshot (around 29 second mark)...


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGDtf-bpqVc


... not that I know where that youtube user got this video from but it may aid in tracking the source down.

Google heavily suggests this is all from 2014/15 (the youtube video appears much newer than that), which may also help. Dunno.

Some idea of what the conspiracy here is (why the arrows?) wouldn't go amiss.

 

[Juanne Pili]

I found the original source thanks to two users on a private post I created on Facebook. The image comes from a report by the German broadcaster NDR. Believe it or not, it's mistakenly dated 2028 (LOL). I recorded the audio and uploaded it to Turboscribe; it clearly refers to the American patient hospitalized in Germany who tested positive for Bundibugyo. Look from minute 1:20:

Source: https://www.ndr.de/nachrichten/info...t-wird-in-berlin-behandelt,ndrinfo-12698.html

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

I imagine Google's AI might be a bit more accurate on the EXACT source so I'll post it here just in case...

The exact source of the footage shown between the 0:29 mark and the end of that YouTube video is a video pool package filmed by the German Press Agency (Deutsche Presse-Agentur / dpa). [1]

The footage features photojournalist Tim Brakemeier's coverage for the dpa pool, capturing Tropenmediziner Florian Steiner and Stationsleiter Thomas Klotzkowski conducting a simulated bio-emergency exercise at the Sonderisolierstation 59 (Special Isolation Ward) at Charité Berlin on August 11, 2014. [1, 2, 3]

The specific visual sequence in your video—including the side-angle perspective of the medical specialists being sprayed down during the chemical shower decontamination process—belongs to this specific dpa video package distributed across German broadcasters. You can find matching production metadata, stills, and tracking details through the historical Tagesspiegel Archive Report and licensing agencies that host dpa's 2014 video pool files. [1]

I don't think it's possible to get to the EXACT source without some effort, subscriptions and possibly money.

 

[JMartJr]

So I assume the frame was supposed to show "it's all fake because the crisis actors are all in their blue protective gear, while the woman in the background is not wearing any!!!!!" In the full video, it is pretty clear that they are leaving the area where they were getting suited up, walking down a hallway from there, and are finally shown having arrived in the location where they are doing the work where the protective gear is needed.

So yeah, people put on the suits BEFORE going to where the suits are needed, and in the area before the suits are needed, somebody does not need a suit. Of course.

 

[Juanne Pili]

I wouldn't trust AI-generated answers either, especially when they don't provide a precise link.

What I can see, however, is that the footage appears to be part of an NDR report about the American patient who was hospitalized in Germany.

 

[Juanne Pili]

So I assume the frame was supposed to show "it's all fake because the crisis actors are all in their blue protective gear, while the woman in the background is not wearing any!!!!!" In the full video, it is pretty clear that they are leaving the area where they were getting suited up, walking down a hallway from there, and are finally shown having arrived in the location where they are doing the work where the protective gear is needed.

So yeah, people put on the suits BEFORE going to where the suits are needed, and in the area before the suits are needed, somebody does not need a suit. Of course.

Sure! It's the "changing-room conspiracy."

I'm a journalist myself, and I've personally assisted a colleague while he was being dressed in the protective equipment required to enter an intensive care unit. This was during the pandemic, at the hospital in Varese, Italy.

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

I wouldn't trust AI-generated answers either, especially when they don't provide a precise link.

What I can see, however, is that the footage appears to be part of an NDR report about the American patient who was hospitalized in Germany.

But it is a training exercise as suggested by Google AI or a real emergency as suggested by NDR?

Trust AI or trust the media? Rock and a hard place.

Personally, I'm leaning towards trusting the AI here. "Stock" footage would be easier to source for a report than footage of the emergency. Happy to be proven wrong. Dunno I can be that bothered to prove myself right.

 

[JMartJr]

But it is a training exercise as suggested by Google AI or a real emergency as suggested by NDR?

In one sense, it does not matter -- in either case people would put on gear before entering the area where gear is needed, so the presence of a person not "geared up" is to be expected as they move through safe areas towards where protection is needed.