A 29-year-old man who was hospitalised with coronavirus received death threats and abuse from conspiracy theorists after he spoke out about his ordeal to try and raise awareness.
Henry Dyne from Surrey was interviewed by the BBC after he spent six days in hospital having tested positive on July 10. He had not previously been vaccinated and said he wanted to encourage others to get jabbed after the virus left him feeling so ill he didn't know if he'd recover.
Following the initial TV interview, Henry said he received some abuse from anti-vaxxer activists. However, it wasn't until the BBC included his interview as part of a 2021 round up on December 28 that things really kicked off, he told WalesOnline.
As a viral video of Henry gained momentum in anti-vaxxer circles he started getting serious threats and abuse online.
How did it all start?
Henry said he didn't think Covid could make him seriously ill because of his young age and good health. But five days after testing positive, he found himself being treated in hospital.
"I remember thinking I would literally do anything to stop feeling like this," he said. "I was circling the room with my hands on my head. It felt like my head was full of glass. My oxygen levels were 80% which was horrendous and I could barely breathe. Every breath I took I didn't know if it was going to be my last.
"I went into ICU for five days and they put me on an experimental drug at the time called remdesivir which worked really well. Within four to five days, I felt drastically better so I could leave the hospital."
Henry said on the day he was due to leave, his doctor came in his room and asked if he wanted to do an interview with the BBC.
"I thought it would be a good thing to go on record because I'm young, relatively healthy and I don't have any underlying conditions, but I felt like I nearly died," he said.
Henry spoke into the cameras and urged others to get their jab as he wished he had. "The next thing I know it's shared everywhere online," he said. "But things didn't get as crazy as they are now. On December 28 the BBC did a round up and everything just kicked off again, but a lot bigger."
Why did it blow up?
A video went viral showing an unknown individual recording Henry's BBC interview while scrolling through his Instagram. On his profile, Henry made a joke about being an award-winning "crisis actor" - someone who is hired to act out a tragedy.
Henry said the joke on his Instagram was just him making light of the false claims which suggested his Covid experience wasn't real. He said the conspiracy theorist in the video had taken his sarcasm as an admission of guilt that he really was a crisis actor.
The video was quickly reposted in anti-vaccine pockets on various social media sites before it really took off on Twitter.
One of the main drivers behind the Twitter onslaught was aspiring Welsh politician, Richard Taylor, who posted a viral video made of Henry on his social media.
In 2019 Mr Taylor received 20% of the Blaenau Gwent vote when he stood for the Brexit Party during the General Election. He recently set up a crowdfunding campaign that raised £61,000 for a Swansea cinema closed after breaching Covid regulations.
Mr Taylor shared the video, with the caption "We see you". When the BBC contacted him for comment, he replied via email: " "In my original post, I was not implying anything... It us up to my social media followers to draw a conclusion from what they see or read.
"It is unfortunate that Mr Dyne decided to reference himself sarcastically in his social media accounts," Taylor wrote, "I have lived believing that when someone tells you who or what they are, believe them, so I would have taken Mr Dyne at face value when he referenced himself as a crisis actor."
He also condemned the abuse and threats made against Henry. He wrote: "I would never intentionally contribute to abusing or threatening another individual, having spent a large part of my vocation life helping and serving others."
What impact has this had on Henry?
At it's worst, Henry said he had about a thousand requests on his social media platforms every hour.
He said: "About 30% to 40% of those were positive and then the rest were all conspiracy theorists saying they wish I'd die and that they were going to stamp on my face in the street. A lot of people were calling me an idiot and just throwing random insults and swear words at me.
"It felt at the beginning like the whole country was doing it, but I quickly realised it's a small group of very loud idiots who run with that narrative. I'm not referring to anti-vaxxers when I say that because some anti-vaxxers will have legitimate reasons. My annoyance and my remarks are aimed at those people who are intent on sharing the rumour that I really am a crisis actor."
He said although it wan't nice to be on the receiving end of such vile abuse, he didn't let any of the negativity get to him.
"I'm glad it happened to me rather than other people because I do have a really thick skin," he said. "Just because I made a joke about being an award winning crisis actor in my profile, conspiracy theorists took that as an admission of guilt.
"It's odd having your face thrown everywhere with lies attached to it. Overall the experience was ridiculous. Who takes time out of their day to message abuse to someone who just came out of hospital?
"Even though I can see the funny side of it, it's not nice to be abused by people, but they're not people I would necessarily engage with anyway. If it was flipped and the scientists and virologists and other important and intelligent people were hating me, then it might be a different story."
Henry said even now - over a week after the BBC interview was posted for a second time - he was receiving a few hundred interactions on his social media accounts "every few minutes".
In response to Mr Taylor's social media post, Henry said he wasn't previously aware of Mr Taylor, adding: "I will not lose any sleep worrying about him."
Have social media sites done anything to help?
Mr Taylor's post on Facebook was labelled as false by fact-checkers, according to the BBC. A video on YouTube remains live and currently has upwards of 70,000 views. Several viral tweets also remain showing the video on Twitter.
Meta - which owns Instagram and Facebook - has since taken down fake accounts made of Henry during the social media storm.
"We apologise to Henry for the distress that this must have caused," a Meta statement said in response to the BBC. "Accounts that impersonate someone else are not allowed on Instagram and we have removed the accounts reported to us."
Twitter told the BBC in a statement: "We continue to take enforcement action on content and accounts that advance demonstrably false or misleading claims about Covid-19 and that may lead to significant risk of harm."
YouTube is said to be investigating the video in question.
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