A routine meeting of the Washington State Board of Health on Wednesday became the topic of a nationwide misinformation campaign this week as social media users, political hopefuls and conservative pundits spun bogus claims that the meeting would include a vote to force unvaccinated residents into COVID-19 quarantine camps.
A communication manager for the board said it had been inundated with more than 30,000 public comments, some threatening, related to the false theory, which misrepresented the board's scheduled discussion on HIV as a proposed change to COVID-19 policy.
The claims erupted across social media, where widely-circulating posts spawned fears of COVID-19 "internment camps," and activists rallied their followers to attend a protest at the Board of Health in Tumwater during the online meeting Wednesday.
Even after the board clarified the facts on its website on Friday, the false notion that the state was plotting to hunt down and detain the unvaccinated persisted across social media platforms and on conservative talk shows.
Here's a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: The Washington State Board of Health at a Jan. 12 public meeting was scheduled to consider a proposed rule change to allow the involuntary detainment of unvaccinated residents in COVID-19 quarantine camps.
THE FACTS: This false claim completely misrepresents the state Board of Health's scheduled Wednesday discussion on proposed Washington Administrative Code changes, according to Keith Grellner, who...
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