The National Security Council sent out a tweet late Sunday denying rumors swirling on social media that the federal government was about to impose a nationwide quarantine during the COVID-19 outbreak, bluntly calling the text messages going around “FAKE.”
“Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE,” the NSC’s verified account said just before midnight. “There is no national lockdown. The CDC has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus.”
Text message rumors of a national #quarantine are FAKE. There is no national lockdown. @CDCgov has and will continue to post the latest guidance on #COVID19. #coronavirus
— NSC (@WHNSC) March 16, 2020
Screenshots of the falsified messages were passed around on Twitter and other social media platforms on Sunday purporting to show insider information about a military plan to institute a nationwide lockdown in the coming days, akin to what has been imposed in Italy as the disease has overwhelmed that nation’s healthcare system.
Brody Logan, a morning anchor for KSEE24 News, shared a couple examples of the false rumors on Twitter, with one citing an unnamed “friend whose partner is CIA” and another vaguely referencing “Caroline’s sister (who works for the FBI and National Security Council on an intelligence team advising the President)” and talking about plans to “shut everything down” or “move the U.S. toward the current status off Italy’s lockdown.” Other variations of the false rumors were also spread around.
Prior to the NSC weighing in, HuffPost contributor Yashar Ali had tweeted: “Your friend or family member doesn’t know someone at the Pentagon who knows what decisions the executive branch is making in response to Coronavirus. The screenshot they’re sending you isn’t real.”
The initial source of the rumors was not immediately clear, but the federal government has repeatedly warned about scammers and hoaxers trying to take advantage of concern surrounding the coronavirus pandemic.
Earlier on Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance for large events and mass gatherings, recommending that, for the next eight weeks, organizers nationwide cancel or postpone in-person events of fifty people or more as the United States tries to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, which originated in China.
The Johns Hopkins University interactive map showed early Monday morning that there were 169,387 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, with 6,513 deaths due to the infection. There were 3,774 cases in the U.S. and 69 deaths.
