KJ Apa called out for sharing "dangerous" coronavirus conspiracy video

29 July 2020, 11:42

Trump defends retweeting doctor that said 'masks don't work'

By Sam Prance

KJ Apa posted a Donald Trump endorsed video on his Instagram stories telling his 18 million followers not to wear masks.

KJ Apa is coming under fire for sharing a wildly inaccurate video dismissing the seriousness of coronavirus on social media.

Yesterday (Jul 29), far-right news organisation Breitbart posted a video in which doctors make a series of false claims about coronavirus. Dr Stella Emmanuel says: "The virus has a cure, it's called hydroxychloroquine, zinc, and Zithromax. You don't need masks. There is a cure. I know they don't want to open schools. No, you don't need people to be locked down."

READ MORE: KJ Apa claps back at Elijah Daniel over his "silence" on Black Lives Matter

The video quickly went viral with many people, including Donald Trump and Madonna, sharing it. Now, KJ is facing backlash for posting it on his page and asking his 18 million followers to share it with everyone they know too.

In a now-deleted Instagram story, KJ shared the video from singer Marcus Rogers' Instagram page. In his post, Marcus said: "President Trump was right the whole time about hydroxychloroquine." Marcus then continues to claim: "All the people and media who mocked Trump for pushing hydroxychloroquine should feel guilty. Lives could have been saved."

KJ posted the video on his stories with the caption: "WAKE UP AMERICA! WATCH AND SHARE PLEASE!" The video, along with Marcus and KJ's posts have since been deleted from Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. In a statement, Twitter said: "Tweets with the video are in violation of our Covid-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy here."

The World Health Organisation officially dismisses hydroxychloroquine. They say: "While several drug trials are ongoing, there is currently no proof that hydroxychloroquine or any other drug can cure or prevent COVID-19. The misuse of hydroxychloroquine can cause serious side effects and illness and even lead to death."

Given how dangerous the video is, people are criticising KJ for sharing it with his followers. One person tweeted: "kj apa, who has a ton of teenage fans, posted that breitbart doctor video on his ig stories... what a fucking idiot." Another added: "so ur telling me kj apa is a trump supporter... yeah he’s dead to me."

As it stands, KJ is yet to respond to the backlash. We shall update you if he does.

For all the most accurate information on COVID, make sure you head to the NHS Coronavirus website or CDC.gov in America.