SAP 'investigating' after viral video allegedly shows anti-mask employee coughing on shoppers

COVIDiot caught on film harassing others for following pandemic precautions

Updated SAP says it is investigating after a video went viral allegedly featuring one of its employees coughing on fellow shoppers in a US store. And that's viral in the internet sense, at least.

Without identifying any individuals, the German software giant said earlier today:

The health and safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work are of utmost concern to us. We are taking the matter of an SAP employee incident very seriously and investigating the situation.

Netizens linked that statement to a video from the weekend in which an unidentified maskless woman in a grocery store in Lincoln, Nebraska, harassed customers for wearing face coverings.

In another video, which has been viewed millions of times now, the COVIDiot can be seen deliberately coughing on people while not wearing a mask herself in the store. Masks must be worn in shops in the city of Lincoln at least until the end of the month due to a surge in cases.

The footage was recorded by a mom and her daughter while out food shopping. Both were wearing masks, and their vids have been shared across the internet.

"She asked if I've had a vaccine and said that my kid and I don't need to wear masks because we look young and healthy," the mother wrote on Reddit, describing the scene. "There were several other people around wearing masks but for some reason she chose to pick on me and my kid."

Challenged over her refusal to wear a mask, the woman seen on camera argued she wasn't sick and neither were other shoppers, and claimed her coughing was due to "allergies" or perhaps a "medical issue."

"I don't need to wear a mask," she insisted. The anti-masker added she felt people helping to reduce the spread of the coronavirus were acting like "sheep," and that they looked "so cute" when seemingly acting scared of the virus. It's said she followed the mom and daughter around the store, coughing on them and failing to keep her distance.

Internet sleuths later claimed the cougher is a staffer at SAP. But let's just say such cyber-investigations have a history of being catastrophically wrong, so make of it what you will.

SAP declined to comment further. The person said to be caught on film did not respond to our inquiries.

America's CDC is blunt: "To maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, fully vaccinated people should wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission," it said. ®

Updated to add

It turns out the woman filmed maskless in the store does work for SAP, or rather, did.

An SAP spokesperson told The Register: "We have reviewed the incident and can confirm that the individual in question no longer works for SAP."