Nevada doctor's selfie used to claim COVID-19 is a hoax

A photo of a hospital’s alternative care site in Reno, Nevada, is being misrepresented on social media to fuel the false narrative that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax, even as cases surge in the state.

Renown Regional Medical Center has been the primary target of renewed conspiracy theories online suggesting that hospitals are empty and the virus is not as dangerous as top medical officials say it is. The hospital opened an alternative care site with two floors of supplemental hospital beds inside a parking structure on Nov. 12 to accommodate an overflow in COVID-19 cases if needed.

Here's a look a closer look at the situation.

CLAIM: A photo showing a doctor standing in front of empty hospital beds at a Reno, Nevada, auxiliary care site for COVID-19 patients proves that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The photo was taken the day the alternative care site was opened, and patients had yet to arrive. Renown Regional Medical Center said the site, which is housed in a parking garage, has treated 198 coronavirus patients since it first opened.

THE FACTS: In recent weeks, social media posts have shared a variety of falsehoods about the hospital's parking garage site, with some posts saying that visitors went there and found no patients, which they then cited as evidence that the virus is a hoax.

President Donald Trump propelled the misinformation Tuesday, retweeting the photo of the doctor amid empty beds to his more than 80 million followers.

“Fake election results in Nevada, also!," he said of the tweet suggesting that the parking garage site and pandemic were both fake.

According to Renown hospital officials, the alternate care site in the parking structure currently has 42 patients and has served 198 patients since opening day in...