'No more beds': Doctor 'fired' after viral tweet about coronavirus

A doctor claims he was fired for tweeting that there were no beds available in the intensive care unit during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Cleavon Gilman, a doctor in the US state of Arizona, tweeted on November 23 he got to work and was told there are no ICU beds available in the state.

Currently Arizona has nearly 400,000 Covid-19 cases.

“What happened to the 175 beds? We likely don’t have nursing to staff them. This is not good,” he tweeted.

The sobering message was re-tweeted more than 27,000 times.

Dr Gilman later tweeted at Arizona Governor Doug Ducey asking him: “What are you going to do?”

The doctor has reportedly been sacked over his tweets.

He told the Arizona Republic news site that Yuma Regional Medical Center gave him his marching orders following his social media activities.

"I did all of this because we are seeing an unprecedented number of cases. This is my third surge — I know how this ends,” he told the publication.

However, the hospital disputes Dr Gilman has been fired and said in a statement on Friday (local time) there had been a “misunderstanding”.

He’s scheduled to work over the weekend, the hospital said.

Dr Gilman said “this is news to me” but will return to work on Monday. He hasn’t been to work since November 23.

He told Arizona Republic doctors “are afraid to speak up” throughout the pandemic.

Just recently, Florida data scientist Rebekah Jones had her home raided and computers confiscated.

She claims they were confiscated because she wouldn’t manipulate published Covid-19 numbers which were being made public.

Ms Jones is now seeking legal action.

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