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Hey everyone, I'm Brandi Zadrasny,

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a senior reporter for NBC News. Do

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you remember the name Tiffany Dover? You

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might remember her from late 2020, when

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frontline workers were first getting the COVID vaccine.

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She was a nurse who received her vaccine,

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but then she fainted, and

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it was all captured on a local news livestream.

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That video lit up the internet, and

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a conspiracy theory was born. Adding

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fuel to the fire after she fainted, she

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went dark. No social media,

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no speaking to the press. I mean,

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I tried to find her last year during the investigation

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for our podcast, Tiffany Dover is Dead,

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and I couldn't track her down.

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Well, two years after she became

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a weapon in a misinformation war,

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Tiffany Dover is speaking out for the

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first time. Her story and

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her words and the reason behind her

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silence are all in a special episode

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of Tiffany Dover is Dead.

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Stay right here to

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listen to a preview. And if you want to catch up

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on the entire series, search Tiffany

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Dover is Dead wherever you're listening and

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follow now.

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If Tiffany was alive, the thinking went,

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where was she? For a healthcare

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worker who loved posting to social media, who

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wanted to advocate for the vaccine, who

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was comfortable enough in the spotlight to get

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up in front of news cameras. What

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sense did it make for her to just disappear?

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Turns out, Tiffany felt the

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same way. I think that I should

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have been able to speak immediately the next day post

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regularly on social media. I feel like

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being silent is what flanked this. And

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I also feel like, you know, that

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would have been a perfect moment for us to speak

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out on, yes, I did pass out. You know, you can

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pass out from receiving a vaccine, But

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that's okay because it can also save your life.

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So it's worth it. That

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clear, passionate message delivered succinctly

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by Tiffany? didn't happen. Instead,

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as Tiffany tells it, decision-makers

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inside her hospital decided

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on something else, a plan that,

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however well-intentioned, objectively

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made everything worse for everyone. The

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morning after she fainted, Tiffany got a call

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from the public relations department. She

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started with telling me that they were very

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busy, overwhelmed by the amount of attention,

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that had traveled all the way to Croatia

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and that the hospital could

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not have me speak out because they would never recover

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from that if something like this was to happen again. Tiffany

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said the hospital was worried about her responding.

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What if she said the wrong thing?

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What if she fainted again? That was the

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first time I really felt like shame from it because I was like,

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oh no, like it was, I felt terrible,

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you know, like she's telling me that the

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hospital can't recover from this. I mean, I

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don't

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know. It was a lot for me to take on. Tiffany

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took the day off, turned off her phone

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to quiet the constant notifications, but

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she called hospital administrators later that

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day to check in. So I get

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my phone out, I call them to

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tell them I'm okay, and the first response

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is, under no condition should

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you post on social media. I know people will be reaching

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out to you, do not post, under no

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circumstance.

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Do you understand? And I'm like, yes, I understand.

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Everything needed to be done, and

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the hospital, still barring Tiffany from speaking

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on her own, decided to release a proof

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of life.

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You may remember it, that

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really cringey video where

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about 20 hospital employees are standing

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on a long staircase holding signs

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saying things like, we support Tiffany,

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and no one speaks? Including

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Tiffany, who's standing at the foot of the stairs.

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It made no sense. But

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you want to know what was actually happening? Many

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inner co-workers didn't know the hospital

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was making a video at all.

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They thought it was a photo.

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I'm told that there's a great idea. So we're lined

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up until we're going to take this.

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no and this will show everyone that i'm

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alive so

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it as you know when you go to take

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a photo you've stand there you smile

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maybe shift a little and

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that's it but this was not a photo

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as i realized once it was posted it was a video

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and net nobody with whereas you can tell from

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all of us just standing there in these with

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strange because you know it looks awkward we're

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not smiling waving normally

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you'd be like hey you know kind of i'm okay

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smile know we're standing for a

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photo so it's awkward it

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was strange on it's own but

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then true there's dissected every

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frame and concluded that no

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way was this person the tiffany dover

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they had seen path out this

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new tiffany this is

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not the woman

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that dad tiffany dover

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defer the phony which and

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her eyes were dollar they said neil

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to preside which a blue where the way and the fleshy

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for the boys and girls down to or

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journals her hair was part it on the wrong

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side tiffany's go some swoop did birch

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and she was she got the swooped you do don't

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appear they said she

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looked heavier have this woman

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that nothing is not only about twenty five

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pounds heavier than tiffany years but

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her her hair is dan then

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also the vest yet so i typically

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i would be required to wear a white

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coat to work but it'll of the chaos

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i forgot my cat i don't know where it was so

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i'm fit into this someone's white vast

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and it's like oh look she looks

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much thinner here than she did there will i have on a

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a vest that's not mine and

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that it was my hair you know

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i part my hair i think it was pretty

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to the left and the first one and then it was down the middle

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and that is because in i

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i called my friend a we can fix my have for this

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i'm about to go down she curls

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it i go down you know

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i want to say that

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yesterday when i saw you at dinner

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you had a part in the center thing

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as a day i it

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i am not a consistent

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harder. When I go to my

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hairstylist and she asks, where do you pour

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it? I do not have it pour it. It's whatever I'm

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feeling that day. That

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proof of life video did

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not make things better, I would say. Is that

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correct? I would say it made it worse. It

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made people suspicious because

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if I'm okay, why am I not just talking?

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Why are we standing there? care.

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You just heard a preview of a special episode

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of Tiffany Dover is Dead. One

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thing to mention, I did reach out to both the hospital

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and their parent company to see if they had any response

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to Tiffany's story, and I got one reply.

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We have no new information. To

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listen to this episode or the full podcast,

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you can go to the link in the description of this clip, or

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search Tiffany Dover as Dad wherever

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you're listening.