A queer indigenous professor who died from Covid-19 on Friday didn’t even exist.
A very popular Twitter account belonging to a queer indigenous Arizona State University professor operating under the handle @sciencing_bi duped people in the science circles for several months.
For several months, @sciencing_bi tweeted about their battle with Coronavirus and whined about being forced to teach in-person at Arizona State back in April.
On Friday, the professor’s death was announced on Twitter by BethAnn McLaughlin, the founder of MeTooStem — click here to read the since-deleted tweets.
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“Sad to report @Sciencing_bi died from COVID this evening,” McLaughlin wrote on July 31, 2020. “She was a fierce protector of people. She let me take my shoulders away from my ears knowing she was meaner and more loving than everyone else. No one has ever had my back like that. I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Please read her timeline. She was forced by her university to teach in person until April,” McLaughlin tweeted. “Campus closed and she was in the hospital a week later. Be mad about COVID but be more mad that BIPOC community is most vulnerable and underrepresented on campus. We are killing them.”
A long Covid-19 thread by @sciencing_bi was captured on Thread Reader app, but it has been since deleted.
Thread by @Sciencing_Bi: Three days ago, I got in to see my PCP after doing running a 101* fever for 48h. No coughing, big headache. I testedositive. It pretty much sucks a bag of dicks. I have lived in really rough wilderness conditions. I am not afraid… https://t.co/RNefPR49Cf
— PJ Kels (@PjKels) August 1, 2020
It was all a hoax!
Motherboard reported:
A popular Twitter account claiming to be run by a queer, Indigenous Arizona State University professor who “died from COVID-19” on Friday was an elaborate catfishing hoax.
Early last week, @sciencing_bi tweeted about needing help fighting COVID misinformation on a COVID survivor Facebook group. The account tweeted extensively about social justice, the professor’s Indigenous heritage as a member of the Hopi tribe, the LGBTQ experience in academia, and their battle with COVID-19.
On Friday, BethAnn McLaughlin, founder of MeTooSTEM, announced that @sciencing_bi had “died from COVID-19,” and tweeted a long thread about the impact @sciencing_bi had on her.
“Who else is going to tell me that I’m not being strong enough? That the bigger fights are ahead That I have to do better,” McLaughlin tweeted. “Who else is just going to be there to call me out publicly for being soft on NIH and NSF? She wasn’t nice. She was powerful and she worked so stinking hard.”
ASU told Motherboard in a statement: “Unfortunately, this appears to be a hoax. We have been looking into this since this weekend and cannot verify any connection with the university.”
“We have been in touch with several deans and faculty members and no one can identify the account or who might be behind it. Some of the past commentary this person posted is questionable, such as teaching in April. ASU went fully remote in March. The person also mentioned salary reductions. We have not implemented any salary reductions here,” the spokesperson said. “We also have had no one, such as a family member or friend, report a death to anyone at the university.”
It turns out the hoax was created by BethAnn McLaughlin!
McLaughlin admitted to The New York Times that she created the fake queer indigenous professor account and said in a statement through her lawyer, “I take full responsibility for my involvement in creating the @sciencing_bi Twitter account. My actions are inexcusable. I apologize without reservation to all the people I hurt.”
Twitter suspended both BethAnn McLaughlin’s account and her catfish account for violating the platform’s rules against manipulation.
