IIT-Madras Ph.D. Student Played COVID-19 Prank, Got The Consequence She Deserved

COVID-19 has spread to almost every part of the world and fear of the pandemic is growing along with increasing confirmed cases and death tolls. And it seemed that a student like to enjoy the fun of this fear so much that she decided to tease people around her.

Specifically, a Ph.D. student from the IIT Madras pranked her co-passengers on a bus, an official said. Not only did she scare the hell of out those passengers, but the student also put the Tamil Nadu Public Health Department into a state of emergency when a passenger called them up.

As reported by P. Sampath from Public Health and Preventive Medicine, it seemed that the day of the incident was her birthday. After celebrating her birthday with friends, she got on a bus to Coimbatore while her friends drove a car following the bus.

She then told a passenger that she was infected with the coronavirus, tested positive with COVID-19 three days before. The passenger, as well as the others, freaked out. He then called Sampath immediately and reported about the girl, Sampath recalled.

The ignorant girl then quickly went to the driver to stop the bus but he refused. Then she told the entire vehicle that she was infected with the coronavirus. The bus stopped immediately and she got out of the vehicle, got in her friend’s car that was following all along.

The passengers called the helpline for the coronavirus as well as the travel company to get a different bus. Health officials rushed to the spot immediately and sanitized the bus.

Using the ticket booking details, they were able to trace her phone number and she was summoned to the health department office or they would file a criminal complaint against her. Well, she deserved that.

The student came to the office and admitted that her friends challenged her to stop that bus by telling people that she had the coronavirus to scare people, according to Sampath.

It’s shocking, annoying, and infuriating that a Ph.D. student, one that’s supposed to have good intellectual capability and awareness, could have done such as thing. It appeared that she was so ignorant she didn’t care about other people or the current situation that she had the gut to do that prank. The girl received a strict warning from both the health department and IIT-M. At a time like this, we should help each other, not freak each other out, regardless of the reason.

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