The fog is finally lifting almost three years into the pandemic, and it’s clear that things were not as they seemed.
Social media was instrumental in instilling fear and widening divisions, but at least four accounts purporting to be doctors advocating for masks, lockdowns, and other COVID-19 mitigation measures were complete forgeries.
The San Francisco Standard reported last month on how writer Joshua Gutterman Tranen came across the information, beginning with the discovery that Dr. Robert Honeyman, who used “they/them” pronouns and claimed multiple COVID-19-related tragedies, never existed.
Gutterman Tranen became suspicious after conducting a Google search and discovering that Honeyman not only used a stock photo as his profile picture but also did not appear in any academic writings or work at any institution.
Gutterman Tranen became suspicious after conducting a Google search and discovering that Honeyman not only used a stock photo as his profile picture but also did not appear in any academic writings or work at any institution.
“There’s this account — Dr. Robert Honeyman — who says their sister died of covid in Nov and now their husband is in a coma with covid,” Gutterman Tranen tweeted on Dec. 13.
“I cannot find any record of them anywhere, from any academic institution. On the left is a stock photo and on the right is their profile photo.”
There's this account — Dr. Robert Honeyman — who says their sister died of covid in Nov and now their husband is in a coma with covid. I cannot find any record of them anywhere, from any academic institution. On the left is a stock photo and on the right is their profile photo. pic.twitter.com/DFwxVqv9HL
— joshua gutterman tranen (@jdgtranen) December 13, 2022
Honeyman’s points of view also appeared manufactured, something Gutterman Tranen referred to as “liberal Mad Libs” about it.
“I’m a self-identified leftist, and I understand that people have a lot of different identities, but it felt concocted in the lab about how many identities and horrible experiences can we put on one person,” Gutterman Tranen said.
Honeyman was transgender, COVID-19-averse, and a “Doctor of Sociology and Feminist Studies” who championed diversity and used the transgender and Ukrainian flag emojis on Twitter.
He later joined the monkeypox scare, claiming in a July tweet that he was infected with the virus.
“Don’t believe what the media have been sharing. […] it’s a horrible disease that has had me bed ridden,” he wrote.
In October, he said he was a victim of an attack because of his transgender identity.
Meanwhile, his equally phony husband, Dr. Patrick Honeyman, was said to be comatose due to COVID-19. That Twitter account displayed the rainbow flag in his bio, alongside a photo of a Wayne, Indiana, insurance professional.
But it wasn’t just this pair of doctors who turned out to be forgeries.
Meanwhile, his equally phony husband, Dr. Patrick Honeyman, was said to be comatose due to COVID-19. That Twitter account displayed the rainbow flag in his bio, alongside a photo of a Wayne, Indiana, insurance professional.
But it wasn’t just this pair of doctors who turned out to be forgeries.
Others who interacted with the Honeyman were also false accounts, such as Dr. Gerold Fischer, who added transgender, Ukrainian, and rainbow flag emojis to his self-description as “an ally for all in the #LGBQT+ Community. #WearAMask.”
Internet archives reveal Fischer used the hashtag “PrayforHoneyman” to show support for the sick Honeyman, as well as a series of tweets and retweets of left-wing COVID-19 opinions, all from the account with a stylized avatar.
A fourth account, allegedly from the University of Antwerp’s Dr. Steve “Ste” Ville, labeled himself as a “LGBTQ+ Ally” and “Proud Mask Wearer” — but none of that was true either.
These accounts would interact with one another, retweeting messages in support of the most extreme pandemic policies.
Nonetheless, on November 27, Robert Honeyman got a little carried away with a tweet. “China, come on!” Stop protesting; I wish we had similar lockdown measures here,” wrote the phony doctor.
With the exception of Fischer, whose account was created in 2019, the fake doctors all appeared during the pandemic, raising questions about why they existed in the first place.
When it was discovered that the person behind the account claimed to be from a troll farm in southern Africa, perhaps an updated report from the San Francisco Standard provided the answer.
Employees are assigned “potential COVID-positive accounts,” which include passwords and usernames.
The accounts have been paid to promote COVID from a COVID influencer and small American YouTuber/website host,” the person, claiming to be writing from a small house where they get paid to create these posts, told the news outlet.
“Since payment has stopped I will be deactivating the account,” the person added.
“Many people in my community get paid to do this for many other agendas.”
None of the accounts in question appear to be active at this time, though Dr. Robert Honeyman was reportedly back online earlier this month for a while.
It’s no surprise there are fake accounts on Twitter.
After all, when Tesla CEO Elon Musk was negotiating the purchase of the social media platform, he was concerned that a large percentage of users were bots.
However, the tone of these accounts, as well as the fact that they appear to be run by real people, raises many questions about who or what is behind this effort.
It’s one thing to have a bot or artificial intelligence program that posts or retweets, but hiring actual people seems more cautious and professional.
Perhaps the people behind these accounts simply wanted to sow discord and increase social media engagement in order to increase online revenue.
There is still much to learn about this phenomenon — but, like so many other things that were obscured by the fog that settled in during the pandemic, the truth will eventually emerge.
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