Conspiracy theory about Boris Johnson not having Covid-19 is back

A satirical claim about Boris Johnson from a website called the Dorset Eye is once again being shared on Facebook as if it were true.

The claim in its current form appears as a screenshot, in one case from a widely shared tweet, which itself includes a screenshot saying: “Ms Fox retweeted a post that read: ‘Dorset Eye are reporting that when the PM was admitted to hospital, all staff were required to sign the official secrets act. 2 doctors who disagreed with his diagnosis refused, and were sent home 'on leave'. One of the doctors said 'if he has Covid19 I am not a doctor.’"

This screenshot appears to come from TikTok, although we can’t find the original post. The reference to “Ms Fox” seems to come from an Independent article from 14 April 2020 about the then-chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee Andi Fox retweeting the conspiracy theory. Sources told the Independent she had done so by accident and later deleted it. 

The claim about Mr Johnson itself does indeed come from an article in the Dorset Eye. We checked similar claims based on this article back in April 2020, shortly after Mr Johnson was discharged from hospital, following his admission with Covid-19.

There are several reasons not to believe the Dorset Eye article.

• It appears in the website’s “satire” section.
• It begins with the words “Possibly satire, possibly not.” (Although it did not when it was first published.)
• The names of the doctors’ mentioned in the article are “Shirley Knott” (surely not) and “Ashleigh Pullin” (leg pulling).
• These names do not appear on the General Medical Council’s medical register (nor did they in 2020 when the article was first published).
• A note was added to an earlier version of the article saying “We realise now that this article may well be satire or that the names have simply been made up […] We do however apologise to those who may initially have believed that this article was 100% factual (without satirical substance)”.

St Thomas’ Hospital has confirmed that the Prime Minister was treated for Covid there.

Image courtesy of 10 Downing Street