Impact of fake social media: “False Claim of Forced Removals Under Contact Tracing Bill”

Impact of fake social media: “False Claim of Forced Removals Under Contact Tracing Bill”

I witnessed the impact of this fake social media item, yesterday:

A bogus Facebook post, for example, claims the bill — unfortunately numbered H.R. 6666 — “will give the government the power to forcibly remove your family members from your home and quarantine them[.] That includes your children.

”A viral YouTube video similarly claims the legislation would “allow individuals to come into your house” and, if you have COVID-19 symptoms or test positive, “pull you or your loved ones, especially your children, away under pretense of public safety.”

Source: False Claim of Forced Removals Under Contact Tracing Bill – FactCheck.org

After waiting two months, I finally got in yesterday to see a podiatrist for a foot injury that occurred over 3 months ago. I had given my foot a month to heal on its own, thinking it was tendinitis. Ice and ibuprofen for a while and see if it gets better. Most things heal on their own.

By mid-March I decided this pain was not getting much better and needed to be seen by a doctor – but by then our Governor banned non-emergency health care in the entire state. So I waited over two months to finally be seen. Turns out I have a stress fracture, a partially torn tendon and tendinitis.

Due to the new “re-opening” protocols, patients wait in their cars in the parking lot until a staff member calls us in. While waiting, a woman arrived with her elderly mother for her mother’s appointment. The woman went to ask how she should check in and was escorted back to her car; she broke down and cried that nothing made any sense anymore and she didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She spoke with another waiting patient and said she was terrified that she and her elderly Mom, for whom she is the caregiver, could be separated by the government – she had heard that the government was going to start testing everyone and if someone in a home was positive, then the kids and elderly in the home would be forcibly removed. She then cried some more.

I did not know what she was referring to until I read the above “fact check” today. I now know that I had just witnessed the real world emotional impacts of this fake social media meme.

 

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