COPS are today searching for a Covid denier who stormed a hospital demanding a sick patient be released – with fears he could now be infected with the bug himself.
Toby Hayden-Leigh, 45, is wanted after a group insisted the critical care ward coronavirus patient leave hospital despite medics warning "he will die".
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In footage of the confrontation, the man filming could be heard insisting there was no proof the deadly bug existed.
The group was eventually removed from the ward – with cops now searching for the man from Maidstone, Kent.
East Surrey Detective Chief Inspector Kimball Edey said Hayden-Leigh needed to be interviewed after the incident and the "escalating abusive and threatening comments" that had been made towards hospital staff on social media.
Det Ch Insp Edey added: "The staff at the hospital, as are all NHS workers, are trying to care for desperately ill people in extremely challenging circumstances, and to be targeted and abused on social media in this way is simply unacceptable.
"We also need to track Hayden-Leigh down as a matter of urgency due to the public health risk he poses. He came into close proximity with a patient who remains seriously ill with covid and may well have contracted the virus himself."
Two individuals have previously been fined over the confrontation that unfolded on Thursday 21 January.
In the clip, a doctor could be heard trying to explain the importance of the patient continuing to receive oxygen, saying: "My main concern is his safety and at the moment you are making him unsafe.
"He's taken his oxygen off, he's going to die if we don't put it back on."
At one point, the doctor pointed to the patient's oxygen levels on a monitor and says: "Seventy-three per cent. He's at risk of dropping dead at any minute."
He also explained the patient – who could be heard coughing – had coronavirus pneumonia affecting both of his lungs."
The medic added: "He's on steroids called dexamethasone. He's on antibiotics to treat concurrent bacterial infections."
And when the man holding the camera said his treatment should be replaced with vitamin C, vitamin D, and zinc, he was flatly told: "None of those are proven treatments for coronavirus."
The man filming then went on to claim that coronavirus hasn't been "proven to exist".
And security had to be called to the hospital as the scenes continued to escalate, removing a number of people for trespassing.
The dramatic scenes unfolded in a UK hospital as more than 100,000 lives have been claimed by Covid during the pandemic.
Piers Morgan slammed the footage, saying: "Saddening & maddening. That poor old man's life being put at grave risk because his family have been brain-washed by high-profile conspiracy theorists.
"Feel so sorry for him and for the NHS staff having to put up with this insanity."
Sharing the footage, senior NHS nurse and campaigner Dr Samantha Batt-Rawden wrote: "This has gone beyond conspiracy theories and anti-maskers to breaking into hospital and obstructing patient care. This is now putting lives at risk.
"This has to stop. Now."
Michael Wilson, chief executive of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, said: “Any suggestion that COVID-19 doesn’t exist or isn’t serious is not only extremely disrespectful to the NHS staff caring for patients affected by the virus, but it also puts the lives of others at risk.”
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