A Malaysian influencer recently found himself in hot water after scolding a medical practitioner for performing a COVID-19 swab test in an “aggressive” manner
Syed Syafiq is an online personality with 234,000 followers on Instagram. On Tuesday, 15 December, he uploaded several Instagram stories of him undergoing a COVID-19 screening in Tawau.
The series of videos and images showed a nurse performing a swab test on him, followed by photos of him crying in pain, and several videos of him scolding the nurse and accusing her of purposely carrying out the test in an aggressive manner.
All the footage has since been removed from his Instagram profile and his Twitter account has been taken down as well.
He wrote, “I will not forgive her until the end of time. I asked her to do it slowly and she did it even harder. See you in court, b*tch.”
He confronted the nurse by showing her the clip of her carrying out the test. He tells her, “Just now, you put it in my nose and twisted the swab until I sneezed.”
The woman then replied by saying that sneezing after a swab test is normal. Another medical officer present also insisted that sneezing is normal.
After that, he wrote, “Thank you for all your support and comforting words! But I just want you guys to know that my intention was not to embarrass her.”
“I am aware of the fact that she is working all day in PPE (personal protective equipment) […] All I wanted was for her to realise and do her job properly not just to get it done with. Especially after I told her specifically to do it slowly.”
“This is also for some of you that (sic) have experienced medical negligence and never been able to say anything about it. Voice out your pain or discomfort don’t just let it be, if she can’t accept this kind of constructive criticism. She’ll never get better,” he added.
The videos went viral on social media and sparked netizens’ anger
A repost of Syed Syafiq’s videos on Twitter garnered over 2.2 million views.
??? ok karen malaysia it aint that deep the nurse just did what she needed to do sit down lol pic.twitter.com/ZmScaYlbr4
— 88 (@haqeemhyzan) December 15, 2020
One person wrote, “You’re a patient, she’s a nurse. It’s your first time taking the swab and it’s her thousandth time taking swabs from people. Besides, it’s such a fast process. You wanna be healthy, you gotta go through pain. Such a small matter and you wanna sue her? That’s nonsense.”
Another user noted, “I can’t believe our frontliners are already tired, yet they continue to work to help the country and yet they have to deal with a bunch of imbeciles like this.”
“I had my swab test and seriously, it’s the same procedure. Stop being a whiny brat and appreciate our frontliners risking their lives every day for us. Like you don’t know sh*t what they have to go through during this pandemic. The stress and exhaustion to keep this country safe,” wrote one netizen.
Syed Syafiq has since met up with the nurses and apologised
He uploaded photos of him with the nurses along with a caption that read, “We met up and talked things out together with no other parties involved. I sincerely apologise, to these two nurses that I have disrespected. I should be more understanding of how people are when they are working and under stress.”
In the following tweet, he wrote, “I truly apologise to both of them and every other frontline that (sic) has sacrificed their time, energy and safety for the safety of others. I am sorry for being so rude and disrespectful and I now realise that and I will try to better myself.”
