Doctors Targeted in Deepfake Scam to Promote a “Miracle Cure”
False – the statement is untrue, there is no evidence to support it, the author is lying or unintentionally sharing misleading information.
Several thousand people have shared a fabricated video in which the well-known doctor Ludmila Vīksna allegedly makes alarming claims about Covid vaccines. The video was created using artificial intelligence to attract buyers for an unregistered dietary supplement or miracle cure.
The video was posted on an anonymous Facebook page on June 7, with a caption: “Anyone who’s received the Covid-19 vaccine is now literally the living dead – Ludmila Vīksna.”
The fabricated video is made to look like a segment from the morning news on Latvia’s public television LTV. The segment starts with an introduction from the host Gusts Kikusts: “The famous Latvian doctor Ludmila Vīksna is raising the alarm – anyone who received the Covid vaccine is in mortal danger.” The video then shows a clip where the doctor supposedly talks about a “catastrophe” after vaccination and the “horrifying, previously hidden consequences caused by the so-called vaccine.”
First of all, these claims about Covid vaccines are baseless. Second, the quotes are made up, and the video was created with the help of artificial intelligence. This is evident by the doctor’s unusually monotonous speech pattern and the blurry background behind her mouth. Meanwhile, the host’s mouth and jaw move as if they’re separate from the rest of his face.
The AI video is based on an interview the doctor did in 2024 for the Latvian Radio show Laikmeta krustpunktā. In the original interview, she didn’t claim vaccines are harmful.
Screenshot from a fabricated video. On the left side it’s visible that the background behind the face is moving. This is one of the signs that the video was artificially created.
Several people on Facebook commented that the video is fake, but still within two days it was shared by 3,000 users.
What has doctor Vīksna actually said about vaccines?
Ludmila Vīksna is the board advisor on infectious disease strategy at the Riga East University Hospital and a professor at the Riga Stradiņš University. She hasn’t ever said that Covid vaccines are dangerous and turn people into “walking corpses.” On the contrary, for example, in 2024, the doctor stated that vaccination against Covid was extremely helpful. On the TV24 show National Interests Club, she noted: “Among the deceased patients and those severely ill, the majority were unvaccinated. And when people complain that they were forced to get vaccinated and still got ill for the second or third time… sometimes I feel like saying – if you hadn’t been vaccinated, you would have been dead by now.”
Re:Check has previously written that death from Covid vaccines is extremely rare. For example, in Latvia, there has been only one reported death that was plausibly linked to a Covid vaccine. In 2021 and 2022, unvaccinated Latvians were more likely to die from Covid and other causes.
Where does the scam lead?
In the video caption, authors promote an “innovative formula” and encourage viewers to click on a link. In the AI video, the doctor invites people to do so as well. The link leads to a fake Ministry of Health website (probably to increase trust). On the fake website, people can order a dietary supplement called Tonerin. The product is not found in the Latvian drug registry or the dietary supplement registry.
Screenshot of the fake ministry website. The title says: “Swelling, pain, and muscle cramps – side effects that no one warned about. How could these symptoms be related to the COVID-19 vaccine?”
This isn’t the first time someone has used deceptive tactics to sell Tonerin in Latvia. Two years ago scammers created a website with modified screenshots from a Latvian TV show and made it look like the hosts are promoting their supplement
In late June, the same scammers faked a video with Liene Cipule, the head of Latvian Emergency Medical Service. In it, she has the same talking points – the vaccines made everyone into “the living dead” and only Tonerin can save them.
Screenshot from the second fake video promoting Tonerin.
Unlike the previous video, this one does not have easily noticeable signs indicating that it was created using artificial intelligence – except for its content. During the Covid pandemic the Emergency Medical Service led by Cipule was involved in vaccinating the population. Cipule herself publicly encouraged vaccination. On social media, Cipule warns that she has not “lost her mind” and that the video is a deepfake.
Conclusion: The news segment with doctor Vīksna was faked with the help of artificial intelligence. Neither the news host, nor doctor Vīksna has claimed Covid vaccines are dangerous. The link attached to the video leads to a fake Ministry of Health website where scammers try to sell an unregistered dietary supplement and/or collect user data.
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