Fact Check: Hantavirus Cruise Ship Influencer Jake Rosmarin Was NOT The COVID-19 Patient Shown In A 2022 BBC Report — That Was Henry Dyne
Was Jake Rosmarin, the hantavirus cruise ship influencer, the same COVID-19 patient featured in a 2022 BBC report? No, that claim is false: The BBC segment focused on another individual, Henry Dyne, who, during the pandemic, was falsely accused of being a “crisis actor” pretending to have COVID-19. No credible evidence supports the claim that Dyne and Rosmarin are the same person.
The claim appeared in a post and images (archived here) by the @robinmonotti account on X on May 11, 2026. It read:
And he also happened to be a much publicised ‘Covid patient’ as well! What are the chances that this guy is always where the current propaganda ‘virus’ is and always photographed or filmed as the victim?
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @robinmonotti on X.)
The @robinmonotti post included a repost (archived here) from the @HowleyReporter account on May 10, 2026. It read:
Jake Rosmarin, the media’s heavily-promoted influencer who happened to be on the ‘Hantavirus cruise ship,’ was an intern at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and worked for Hillel in college.
The full post is embedded here:
And he also happened to be a much publicised “Covid patient” as well! What are the chances that this guy is always where the current propaganda “virus” is and always photographed or filmed as the victim? https://t.co/JnF8SiBo7o pic.twitter.com/ynyP7f8bw9
— Robin Monotti (@robinmonotti) May 11, 2026
The screenshot in the post is of a January 2022 BBC article (archived here). It identifies the COVID-19 patient in the story as Dyne. According to the report, he was targeted with hundreds of threats following his appearance in a 2021 year-end BBC News report covering his experience contracting the virus in the summer of 2021.
The other man in the post is Rosmarin (archived here), a Boston photographer and influencer who became known for his social media videos from aboard the hantavirus-hit cruise ship MV Hondius (archived here), which made headlines in early May 2026. In a reply to the initial post (archived here), the @robinmonotti account suggested the two men are the same person, placing their photos side by side:
I would argue that it’s the same guy yes!
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing, with Dyne on the left and Rosmarin on the right:
(Image source: post by @robinmonotti on X.)
The account offers no other evidence to support its claim other than the two pictures.
Lead Stories searched Google News (archived here) and Yahoo! News (archived here) and did not find any matching reports linking the names: “Jake Rosmarin and Henry Dyne.”
