A California social media influencer who licked a toilet seat as part of a TikTok “coronavirus challenge” claims to have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19.
Larz, 21, posted a video of himself on Twitter licking a stained toilet seat in a public bathroom with the caption “RT (retweet) to spread awareness for the Coronavirus :).” Two days after, he tweeted “I tested positive for Coronavirus” with a tearful emoji and a video of himself bedridden in a hospital.
Twitter has since suspended his account, @GayShawnMendes.
Larz was previously featured on Dr. Phil for opening and spitting into drugstore mouthwash and eating out of supermarket ice cream tubs only to put them back on the shelves.
When asked about why he refuses to talk to his family, Larz told Dr. Phil that “They’re irrelevant. None of them have followers, if they got followers or got rich I’d probably talk to them again.”
TikTok user Ava Louise, 22, was the first to post a toilet licking video. With over 34,000 followers on the platform, she called her stunt of licking an airplane toilet seat a “coronavirus challenge.”
Louise also posted the video on her Twitter account with the caption “Please RT this so people can know how to properly be sanitary on the airplane,” with a couple of smiling emojis to top it all off. Since she posted it on March 14, the video has amassed over 600,000 views.
Larz and Louise are not the only influencers trying to capitalize on the current coronavirus crisis. Left and right, young people have been filming themselves coughing on grocery store products as a prank or even pretending to have the coronavirus for online fame. As the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases around the world rises, so does the urge to perform reckless viral stunts that could send young people to jail or to the hospital.
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