Juliet Buna
A video shared on Facebook by a page known as “Eco puzzling” claimed that a Nigerian doctor, Dr. Dave Sullivan, has discovered a cure for diabetes has gone viral on the social media platform.
The video showed a news anchor purportedly with Channels TV featuring the alleged doctor, who reportedly claimed a cure with an effectiveness of 96% has been discovered.
According to the video, taking just one pill a day could save individuals from diabetic foot complications.
The video footer read: “30,000 Nigerians cured of diabetics”
As of the time this report was published, the video had gathered over five hundred views, 134 shares, 523 likes and 141 comments. Although many users in the comment section doubted the video, others ran with the narrative as they expressed optimism of a cure to their ailments.
More than half of the commenters sought details on the cure location and availability of the treatment, representing a staggering 62 percent of the total 143 comments on the post.
VERIFICATION
A check on the identity of the presenter revealed that the individual in question was neither a staff member of Channels TV nor a recognized presenter for the station.
Further image checks using Yandex image search revealed several similar images to the purported presenter. The most similar picture is that of Richard McMunn, the founder of How2become.com.
According to his publicly available profile on YouTube, Richard McMunn boasts a commendable background, having spent 17 years in the Fire Service. He dedicates himself to providing specialized recruitment training to those seeking to pursue careers in the public sector.
Watching the video further, it transitioned into a doctor at 00:15 seconds speaking about the purported diabetes care. A closer examination of the video showed that the doctor had an inscription on his shirt that read, “Antonio Webb Spine surgeon.”
Further investigation confirmed that the individual featured in the clip was indeed Dr. Antonio Webb, a renowned San Antonio Spine Surgeon specializing in medical conditions related to the spine, back, and neck, and not Dr. Dave Sullivan, who specializes in diabetes treatment.
Subsequent searches on the name “Antonio Webb Spine surgeon” confirmed the identity of the doctor in the video. Dr. Webb is a board-certified and fellowship-trained spine surgeon and is not associated with any diabetes-related research or treatments.
Seeking further confirmation, News Verifier Africa used the Deepware.ai platform, which analyses videos for deep fake elements. The analysis revealed that the video was indeed a deepfake.
Also, the AI technology attempted to mimic Dr. Webb’s voice but failed to accurately sync his lip movements with the spoken words in the video.
Previous interviews granted by Dr. Webb further affirmed that the voice used in the video was not his. It was determined that the video was generated using artificial intelligence, deceptively attributing Dr. Webb’s image to a false narrative.
The prevalence of deepfake technology highlights the need for users to critically evaluate the authenticity of content before sharing or believing it.
Is there a cure for Diabetes? Are 30,000 Nigerians cured of diabetes?
The video also marketed the existence of a cure for diabetes. There is however no known cure for diabetes in the world.
Dr. Lekan Adetula, a Medical Doctor explained that Diabetes has no cure and it is a condition that can only be effectively managed. He said, “It’s not true. I am not aware of anything like that… There’s no cure for it in any part of the world, not only in Nigeria alone.”
Dr. Adetula, who works at the Federal Medical Center in Owo Nigeria, stressed that individuals with diabetes should adhere to routine medications and cautioned against falling prey to misleading information.
He said, “Some of these trad-medical people are extorting people and making them stop their routine medications. It is a very terrible situation.”
“We manage diabetes. It is a hormonal issue. We have different types of diabetes. We have type one diabetes, type two diabetes, we have secondary diabetes, we have gestational diabetes. Their management is different. There is no cure for diabetes at the moment but it can be managed and carriers can live a good life.”
The video further claimed that 30,000 Nigerians have been cured of diabetes but there is no verified data on people who have been cured from diabetes. Meanwhile data from National Institute of Health reports that 11 million Nigerians are living with diabetes, as of 2017 and there is no known cure for the condition.
CONCLUSION
The video claiming that Dr. Dave Sullivan has discovered a cure for diabetes is a deep fake. It was created with Artificial Intelligence, exploiting the reputation of Dr. Antonio Webb and Channels TV.Also the anchor is not a staff member nor is he a presenter of Channels TV. The claim that there is a cure for diabetes is FALSE and 30,000 Nigerians have not been cured of diabetes. Hence, the video is deep fake and all contents of the video are misleading.
