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A nurse in the US has been suspended after posting a video to social media where she appeared to admit flouting COVID-19 safety measures.
A hospital in Salem, Oregon, announced it had placed the nurse on administrative leave after public outcry over the TikTok video that, in their words, "displayed cavalier disregard for the seriousness of this pandemic and her indifference towards physical distancing and masking outside of work" – as reported by The Hill.
The video from TikTok user @Loveiskind05 shows the nurse, in scrubs and stethoscope, mouthing along to audio from the movie How the Grinch stole Christmas with the caption: 'When my co-workers find out I still travel, don't wear a mask when I'm out and let my kids have play dates,' across the video.
The video has since been deleted, but other concerned TikTok users have shared the clip.
A spokesperson for Salem Health identified the person in the video as oncology nurse Ashley Grames and said the hospital has launched an investigation into the incident.
"Yesterday, a nurse employed with Salem Health posted a video on social media which displayed cavalier disregard for the seriousness of this pandemic and her indifference towards physical distancing and masking outside of work," Salem Health said in a statement.
"This video has prompted an outcry from concerned community members. We want to thank those of you who brought this to our attention and assure you that we are taking this very seriously. This individual does not speak for Salem Health and has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation."
Oregon has been hard hit by the virus with 969 cases reported in the last week and Salem Hospital has the highest number of employee virus cases of any hospital in the state.
This has prompted many online to call for the nurse to be fired with more than 1000 people commenting on the Salem Health post.
“Administrative leave? For knowingly exposing immunocompromised patients to Covid and then bragging about it? I'm an RN and I'm so disappointed in this response,” one commenter wrote.
“No investigation needed. The video supplied should be evidence enough. She needs to be FIRED. Not on PAID leave," said one poster.
The US is still battling the worst of the virus, reporting hundreds of thousands of new cases daily, and since the year began there have been 13.6 million total cases with 268,000 deaths across the nation.
Those numbers are the highest worldwide, well ahead of the 9.43 million cases in India and 6.34 million in Brazil.
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