Tatyana Revva, an intensive care specialist in the central district hospital of the city of Kalach-on-Don in southern Russia, shared a video in late March about equipment shortages with the Doctors Alliance, an advocacy group aligned with Russia's political opposition.

The hospital administration could not immediately be reached for comment, but the hospital's chief doctor, Oleg Kumeiko, said in a March 29 statement on YouTube that the information posted online about PPE shortages was "absolutely untrue."

Rumors and conspiracy theories abound in Russia about Covid-19: that the virus was invented by doctors to control society; that medical workers are hiding the true extent of the casualties from the public; or that medical personnel are falsely attributing deaths to Covid-19 to receive more money from the government.

Disinformation and conspiracy theories are prevalent on Russian TV and online, and media experts say they are corroding public trust in the medical profession.

Alexandra Arkhipova, a social anthropologist in Moscow, said the mistrust of the medical profession reflects broader mistrust of the state.

But health care workers, skeptical of government figures, have compiled their own unofficial tally of colleagues who died fighting the pandemic: more than 300.

Even official reports in state media admit that thousands of medical workers are now infected.

Stella Korchinskaya, an x-ray specialist at Reutov Central City Clinical Hospital in the Moscow region, said she was told by hospital officials they were just treating patients with pneumonia and was given practically no means of protection at her hospital.