Was a video of a ‘corpse’ smoking made as a commentary on the impact of COVID-19?

A video clip was shot during the filming of a music video by a Siberian artist in Moscow. The behind-the-scenes clip does show an actor wrapped in black plastic smoking a cigarette as crew members arrange other plastic-wrapped human forms for a scene in the video.

Claims surrounding various clips of the mysterious plastic-wrapped bodies have been circulating on social media since September 2020 and have surfaced again. One post's caption included: "Covid bodies…one of the dead bodies is smoking a cigarette. Are you awake, yet?"

But the music video is not about COVID-19. The music and story are illustrated with scenes of a janitor cleaning up the aftermath of a fictional gun battle. The behind-the-scenes shot of one participant smoking while wrapped in an apparent body bag is merely an outtake from the music video.