CBS News said it was removing video footage showing a long line of cars waiting in a COVID-19 testing line after undercover video footage showed nurses saying the line was staged.
The line was at Cherry Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Nurses who spoke to Project Veritas said聽Cherry Health Director of Quality and Informatics Glenda Walker helped organize workers at the facility into the line after being given a heads up that a CBS News crew was on the way.
“We had no clue that we鈥檙e going to have to, like, do fake patients,” one nurse said.
Alison Mauro, another nurse, said the line was a mix of fake and real patients.
鈥淲e pretended. There were a couple of real patients, which made it worse,” she said.
A drive through customer picks up a swab kit at a Rite Aid drive through testing site in Macomb, Mich., on April 21, 2020. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)“Apparently the news crew wanted more people in the line because they knew it was scheduled,” Nick Ross, a cleaning site supervisor at the facility, told Project Veritas, a media watchdog.
CBS said in a statement that it “did not stage anything” at the facility.
“These allegations are deeply disturbing. We reached out to Cherry Health to address them immediately. They informed us for the first time that one of their chief officers told at least one staffer to get in the testing line along with real patients,” the outlet told Project Veritas.
“No one from CBS News had any knowledge of this prior to tonight.”
CBS, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, said it was removing the footage from its segment that dealt with Cherry Health.
Cherry Health CEO Tasha Blackmon stands to the left of presidential candidate Joe Biden as he speaks during a campaign stop at Cherry Health鈥擧eart of the City Health Center, in Grand Rapids, Mich., on March 9, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)The footage was run as part of a segment titled: “Michigan expands coronavirus testing but grapples with supply shortages.” Cherry Health posted a link to the segment on its website. Cherry Health CEO Tasha Blackmon told the outlet that her health center was struggling to find enough gowns and N95 masks. Employees had to reuse gowns multiple times, she claimed.
Cherry Health, an independent nonprofit, didn’t respond to a request for information. Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden spoke at the center on March 9, appearing with Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
It’s the third time in recent weeks that CBS has had to adjust its reporting on the聽CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes the COVID-19 disease. After reports appearing to show footage from an Italian hospital being portrayed as one in New York, “CBS This Morning” said it was a mistake.
CBS also adjusted reporting on a woman who said she was a nurse and quit her job after not being protected from the new illness.
The woman said on Facebook before posting the video that she hadn’t worked at a hospital for over a year.
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