We came across claims circulating on X suggesting that the hantavirus outbreak is staged, accompanied by a video appearing to show a man smoking a cigarette while lying among a pile of body bags in the back of a tipper truck. The posts received significant engagement, collectively garnering over 220,000 views.
The posts imply that the body bags contain actors hired to manufacture public fear, suggesting the hantavirus outbreak is being staged the same way they allege COVID-19 was. The idea that disease outbreaks are staged using paid actors to manufacture fear was a recurring conspiracy narrative during COVID-19. These claims were repeatedly refuted during the pandemic, and no credible evidence has ever emerged to support them.
Over the past few weeks, we have debunked a number of claims about hantavirus, including the claim that the virus was engineered, or that China has banned tourists from the US because of the outbreak. Despite these corrections, misleading claims about the virus continue to circulate and gain traction. As such, we wanted to take a closer look at this claim, examining what the video actually shows, and why such claims might continue to spread despite being corrected.
What does the video actually show?
To verify the origin of the video, we used reverse image search tools such as Google Lens and TinEye. These are freely accessible tools that allow users to trace the source of an image or video clip by searching for visually similar content online.
Using these tools, we found that the video traces back to a music video by Russian rapper Husky. Published in September 2020, the music video for the song “Never Ever” follows a janitor who cleans up after gang fights, and features scenes where body bags are transported in a tipper truck.
Further searches trace the exact video circulated in the claims to a behind-the-scenes snippet of the music video, posted on TikTok by production designer Vasya Ivanov on 28 March 2021.
This video has been misused before
Reverse image searches also link the clip to other misinformation and conspiracy claims. In 2022, the same footage was shared with claims that images of Russian soldiers killed during the conflict with Ukraine were staged. In 2024, the clip resurfaced following the Crocus City Hall attack in Moscow, a terrorist attack on a concert hall that killed more than 140 people, with posts falsely claiming the victims had faked their deaths.
Hence, the claim that the video circulating in these X posts is proof of staged hantavirus deaths is false. The video shows behind-the-scenes footage from a Russian music video produced in 2020, five years before the current outbreak, and has been verified as unrelated to hantavirus or any disease outbreak.
Why this matters
It is worth considering why this particular clip keeps resurfacing. A man casually smoking in a body bag is striking enough to stop the scroll, and that absurdity may be what causes people to share it without questioning the context.
In today’s information landscape, where content competes constantly for attention, the most emotionally provocative material, whether absurd, outrageous, or alarming, tends to travel furthest and fastest. This may be why the same clip — a man smoking in a body bag, filmed on a music video set in 2020 — gets attached to a war, a terrorist attack, and a disease outbreak within the span of a few years, and why the same “staged outbreak” narrative that was repeatedly debunked during COVID-19 finds new life with each new health scare.
The goal of such claims may not be to convince, but to create enough confusion that people disengage from the facts. Hence, when encountering something unusual or shocking online, it is good practice to pause before sharing and check whether the footage or claim has been verified elsewhere.
