Chattanooga nurse at center of viral COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy …

Tiffany Dover, the Chattanooga nurse at the center of a viral COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theory, is alive and sharing her story in a new podcast episode that aired Monday.

Dover, a former nurse manager at CHI Memorial Hospital, fainted during a livestream of a news briefing shortly after receiving her first COVID-19 vaccine dose in December 2020.

Moments later, she awoke and said she was fine, but footage of her passing out quickly took off among anti-vaccination groups and conspiracy theorists online who falsely claimed she was dead.

“I know it’s been a really long time, and I really don’t even know where to begin, but I guess I could start with, ‘I’m alive,’” Dover — who now sports blond hair — said in a video posted Monday on her TikTok account.

Last April, NBC News aired a five-episode podcast titled “Tiffany Dover is Dead*” in which a reporter who covers misinformation attempted to find Dover. Although the reporter was able to find evidence showing Dover was still alive, she was never able to land an interview with the nurse.

(READ MORE: Ivermectin and outrage: The viral aftermath for a conservative Chattanooga activist who lost his brother to COVID-19)

Dover’s former employer, CHI Memorial, declined to make Dover available for an interview or provide proof she was alive beyond a short video with a group of hospital workers taken several days after the fainting incident. Dover did not speak in the video. Conspiracy theorists became convinced the person in the video was an impostor.

In the new NBC podcast episode, Dover told of being harassed and seeing her story spin out of control online as countless posts and videos about her supposed death garnered millions of viewers from across the world. New posts concerning conspiracy theories about Dover continue to this day.

“It was hard for me to watch them because I’m being put on platforms and I’m seeing things and people are just commenting like I’m not a person,” she said in the new episode. “The few times that I would dive into watching, it was really hard…

“It was so many stories out there, and most of them are not the truth,” Dover said.

In the new episode, Dover said she initially wanted to be more forthcoming with people about her status but that her employer wouldn’t let her. Dover said hospital administrators told her “under no circumstance” should she post to her social media accounts.

“I think that I should’ve been able to speak immediately the next day, post regularly on social media. I feel like being silent is what flamed this,” Dover said, adding she would have liked to use the moment to explain how and why people pass out from vaccines but that’s not a reason to not get vaccinated.

“It can also save your life, so it’s worth it,” she said.

(READ MORE: Doctors grow frustrated over COVID-19 denial, misinformation)

Memorial spokespersons said the hospital was preparing a response but it would not be forthcoming any time Monday.

The podcast reporter, Brandy Zadrozny, said in an NBC news article promoting the new episode that conspiracy theorists used her repeated failed attempts to reach Dover, including three trips to Dover’s home in Alabama, as further support the nurse had died.

“It seemed like Tiffany had made up her mind. So I was surprised when she texted me in February. Tiffany said she was ready to talk about everything that had happened to her and offered to make a video answering any questions I had,” Zadrozny wrote. “I asked her for one better: Let me come back out to Alabama.”

Dover had stopped working at CHI Memorial during production of the initial “Tiffany Dover is Dead*” series and said in the new episode that at the time she wasn’t ready to talk publicly about her experience.

A broadcast interview with Dover aired Monday on “NBC Nightly News,” where it was reported she hopes to return to nursing one day but is currently focused on reclaiming her life.

Chattanooga Times Free Press’ attempts to reach Dover on Monday were unsuccessful.

The Times Free Press covered the initial vaccination event and interviewed Dover along with other local media after she recovered from fainting that day.

Contact Elizabeth Fite at efite@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6673.