Those tweets are fake. Florida doctor didn’t say COVID vaccines were ‘actual poison’

Social media posts resurfaced a tweet that appears to show a Florida doctor saying she doesn’t regret administering the COVID-19 vaccine, even if it was "actual poison" and killed people.

The tweet, however, is fake.

An April 4 Instagram post shared a screenshot of the tweet that appears to be from the account of Dr. Natalia Solenkova, a Florida critical care medicine specialist.

The fabricated tweet says, "YOU should never regret the vaccine. Even if it turns out I injected you with actual poison and you only have days to live. My heart is and was in the right place. I vaccinated YOU out of love, while anti-vaxxers resisted out of hate. If YOU die because of my love for the world, then so be it. But I will never regret or apologize for killing you." It’s dated Jan. 1, 2023.

The Instagram post sharing the tweet was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Solenkova confirmed to PolitiFact that the tweet is fabricated.

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"All of the people who combat disinformation get some form of threats or attacks," said Solenkova. "Some get death threats, some get other forms of hate and harassment, some get fake tweet attacks like myself."

NBC News reported that prior to the fake tweet’s circulation, Solenkova had a following of 30,000 on Twitter and "used her account to debunk misinformation about Covid, vaccines and unproven cures."

In January, a similar altered tweet attributed to Solenkova went viral. The main difference was that version portrayed Solenkova as talking about her own vaccination rather than vaccinating others. That tweet was debunked by fact-checkers.

The first altered tweet was shared by several high-profile Twitter accounts, including Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, and Christina Pushaw, rapid response director for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign. Podcast host Joe Rogan also discussed the tweet on his podcast, then later acknowledged via tweet that it was fake.

Both altered tweets show the publication date as Jan. 1, 2023, but Solenkova’s account shows no tweets that day.

The length of the tweets is also a sign they were fabricated. The first tweet contained 333 characters and the second had 348 characters, both exceeding Twitter’s 280-character limit. Only Twitter Blue users can publish tweets longer than 280 characters, and Solenkova said she is not subscribed to Twitter Blue. Her Twitter account also does not contain the blue checkmark that would identify her as a subscriber.

We rate the claim that a doctor tweeted that she doesn’t regret giving the COVID-19 vaccine, "even if it turns out I injected you with actual poison and you only have days to live" Pants on Fire!