How a fake doctor tricked pundits by fueling Covid outrage on Twitter

As Americans celebrated Christmas, it was Easter for Dr. Robert Honeyman: They had been resurrected. “Have a great Christmas and wear a mask!” they declared defiantly, after their Twitter account was reinstated. It sounded like a normal holiday greeting from a Covid-cautious doctor. But there was one problem: Honeyman did not exist. Earlier that month, Twitter users had discovered that Dr. Robert Honeyman used a stock photo as its profile image; no academic with that name existed. Reporting by The Standard revealed that Honeyman was part of a network of fake doctors, all progressive and LGBTQ+-friendly, who pushed lockdowns, mask mandates and extreme caution about the pandemic. But one question remained: Why? Was the person behind Honeyman—supposedly a transgender “Doctor of Sociology and Feminist studies” who used they/them pronouns—really a progressive with extreme anxiety about Covid? Or were they a caricature of a liberal intended to bait right-wing users? The story lit the conservative media on fire, with pundits like Ann Coulter and Mike Cernovich sharing it on Twitter as others cited it as evidence that Covid mitigation measures were inherently fraudulent. But the phony doctor’s reappearance allowed The Standard to take another look. A deeper dive into the account’s history suggested that, during the pandemic, the user underwent a transformation from Scottish soccer fan and political moderate to aggressive opponent of Covid restrictions in the year before they assumed the guise of Honeyman. That wouldn’t be surprising. “From what we’ve seen with extremists, it’s isolation and uncertainty” that transforms people, said Jonathan Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “It’s individuals who suddenly feel as though their status quo has been disturbed.” But when The Standard reached out to Honeyman by direct message, there was another surprise: They claimed to be an employee of a troll farm in southern Africa, and then vanished soon after being contacted. So who actually was Dr. Honeyman? Aberdeen The first clear signs that the progressive doc wasn’t who they claimed to be came in early December, when they announced that their husband had contracted Covid and fallen into a coma. A month earlier, Honeyman had tweeted that their sister had just died of the disease. Twitter users began to think the doctor was laying it on a bit thick. They soon discovered Honeyman didn’t exist at all. They, their husband and two other fake docs were soon suspended from the social network. But long before reinventing themself as Honeyman, the account used the handle @bob94754463 and tweeted pugnaciously about Scottish soccer, particularly the team Aberdeen FC. With Covid lockdowns in Scotland came a change in tone from the account—and growing signs of distress. “Awww I’m gonna go bankrupt