A US emergency room nurse has revealed some of her patients are in denial about dying from coronavirus and are insisting, while on their deathbeds, that the virus isn't real.
South Dakota nurse Jodi Doering expressed her frustration on Twitter on Sunday, saying it was like a "horror movie that never ends".
"I can't help but think of the COVID patients the last few days," she tweeted.
"The ones that stick out are those who still don't believe the virus is real. The ones who scream at you for a magic medicine and that Joe Biden is going to ruin the USA. All while gasping for breath on 100 percent Vapotherm [nasal ventilatory support].
"They tell you there must be another reason they are sick. They call you names and ask why you have to wear all that 'stuff' [PPE] because they don't have COVID because it's not real. Yes. This really happens."
Her tweets were reshared over 50,000 times with commenters replying with shock, calling the patients' denial "mind-boggling".
"It's so distressing and surreal that this stuff can happen," one person said.
"I am so sorry. I know this is ripping you apart. We are in a country of the deluded," another said.
Speaking to CNN's New Day on Monday, Doering said it wasn't just one patient who didn't believe COVID-19 was real.
"It's just a culmination of so many people, and their last, dying words are: 'This can't be happening. It's not real'.
"People want it to be influenza, they want it to be pneumonia.
"We've even had people say, 'You know, I think it might be lung cancer'... Even after positive results come back, some people just don't believe it."
According to CNN, South Dakota has reported over 62,000 positive cases of coronavirus and over 3500 people have been hospitalised.
The state currently has the highest positive rate in the United States.
