UNITED STATES—According to the United States Department of Defense, as of April 9, the number of patients at overflow hospitals in New York has doubled. Two oxygen machines used to treat Coronavirus patients in the Queens, New York area were overloaded which caused the machines to fail. Patients were transported to overflow temporary hospitals at the convention center and the USNS Comfort.

Despite media reports of rising COVID-19 victims and a shortage of medical staff to treat such patients, nurses and other medical personnel claim to be losing work. Civilians including those in the medical profession, have taken it upon themselves to take footage of their local hospitals – Many of which appear empty.

“Someone who’s been in New York for a while, this is definitely not active,” said Frank Tufano on Twitter as he points his camera inside an empty hospital outside of First Street in New York City. “If you look inside, there’s no one in there.” He takes his camera to a nearby park the same day and in a separate post says, “How the media portrays this you would think like, all of Central Park would be covered with tents.”

Reports coming out of the state of Washington reveal that many of the walk-in clinics are slow and ER’s are empty. A member from peakprosperity.com responded to a post about the vacant hospital phenomenon stating: “Same is happening in Washington State (north of Seattle). The doctors I know say the ER and walk in clinics are very slow. So slow that some nurses were sent home. There are a lot of coronavirus patients here but most are sent home to quarantine. Only the worst cases with serious respiratory issues that need O2 are in the hospital. When a hospital becomes overwhelmed it’s because most of the people there are close to dying.”

A nurse who chose not to be identified spoke with Inside Sources stating, “Yes, we are dealing with some COVID-19 patients,” he said. “It’s just not nearly the war zone the media is making it out to be.”

Recent reports of empty hospitals amid the Coronavirus pandemic struck debate among Americans over the legitimacy of COVID-19. There are many who believe the media has been exaggerating the pandemic and that it is possibly a hoax as emerging reports reveal more and more vacant hospitals worldwide.

One individual on Twitter commented, “if thousands of people are dying from covid19 wouldn’t there be a rush on and a shortage of #BodyBags? A #FilmYourHospital.” A man tweeted as a response to a number of people claiming the virus is a hoax that, “patients are treated inside, not in f***ing waiting rooms. In hard hit area (like mine) it is poorly controlled chaos. Vented patients in the hallways, being prone. Morgue is full. NOT a hoax.”

A registered nurse named Shelley spoke with Canyon News and indicated she has been tested for COVID-19. Shelley indicated that there are companies who are urgently hiring COVID-19 RNs and are paying exorbitant hourly wages to work in areas that have been hit the hardest. She was offered work in those areas, but still believes the media has been less than honest about its coverage of the pandemic.

“I believe it is a hoax in many ways…the virus was bio-engineered and released and it is a nasty superbug created for bio warfare. The media has hyped it up too,” she says.

Shelley described her experience testing for COVID-19 stating:

“There were three separate checkpoints and the third was for suspected Coronavirus cases and I was there for about two hours and there was only one other person there in that level. The area I was in was separate from regular ER – it was the ambulance bays converted into treatment areas. Pretty eerie experience.”

“They aren’t even testing the general population – only those that qualify such as healthcare workers, correctional care employees or institutional type jobs,” she adds.

Shelley described how she felt about the possibility of testing positive, “I’m not too worried about it to be honest. I just wear an N95 mask so that I don’t potentially expose anyone if I do have it.” Shelley discovered days later that she tested negative for COVID-19.

Canyon News asked the RN from the Ventura County region what she thought about the empty hospitals, and she responded:

“I think the hospitals may be empty because of the fear factor and people don’t want to be exposed unnecessarily as there really is no treatment for it unless you need oxygen or ventilator support.”

Doctors have explained that the reason for the empty hospitals could be due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act commonly known as HIPAA. Some medical professionals say that since hospitals must comply with the Act, hospitals may appear empty amid the pandemic.

Under HIPAA, patients’ privacy is strictly enforced, yet images of Coronavirus patients are still aired daily on many news sources. YouTube banned videos from the hashtag #FilmYourHospital, yet still show videos of doctors, Coronavirus patients, tents and lines of people standing outside hospitals. The videos that depict such images are coming from media sources like NBC New York, CBS and The Washington Post.

Some news sources believe that the #FilmYourHospital is conservative propaganda since the footage from the hashtag are shared by right-wing groups. Fox News contributor Sara Carter promoted the video on her Twitter account, “Interesting, for sure…I’ll be watching #FilmYourHospital closely.” Carter has since deleted her tweet which has been retweeted more than 1,000 times. Other hashtags like #dempanic and #plandemic have suggested that the Democratic party created unnecessary fear in the public over the pandemic.

Despite claims that conservative sources have been promoting the hashtag exclusively, many New Yorkers have been promoting the hashtag as well. The state of New York hasn’t been led by a Republican in a statewide election since 1924. It is known as one of the largest Democratic states alongside California and Illinois.

“Mt Sinai Hospital, Central Park New York April 5TH2020..been here all afternoon… Ghost town.. NO WAR ZONE, NO AMBULANCES JUST BIRDS CHIRPING,” says one man on Twitter.

Another Twitter user from the New York area wrote, “Another close view of GROUND ZERO CENTRAL PARK, NY, MT SINAI Hospital. No sick people, no lines, no ambulances, no ambulance entrances to the tents, no MORGUE TRUCKS FULL OF BODIES after the corporate media reported 800 new deaths.”