A 15-second TikTok video is spreading unsubstantiated claims about a member of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s leadership team.
"The United States Marines on Friday arrested CDC Deputy Director of Global Health, Dr. Howard Zucker on charges of treason after U.S. Army Cyber Command intercepted several Zoom calls … " read the video’s narrator before the TikTok abruptly ended midsentence.
Viewers who paused the TikTok could read more of the claim, which was shared in a screenshot behind the person narrating the video: "... in which he advocated for abolishing the Constitution and renewing lockdowns and mask mandates to combat the (fictitious) emerging strain of Covid."
(Screenshot from TikTok.)
But this is unsubstantiated. TikTok identified the video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)
We found no evidence to support the claim that the U.S. Marine Corps arrested a CDC deputy director.
Dr. Howard Zucker, a former New York state health commissioner who oversaw responses to public health crises including Ebola, measles and COVID-19, became the CDC’s deputy director for global health in January. PolitiFact reached out to the CDC and Zucker for comment and did not hear back.
We searched Nexis news archives and Google for articles from reputable news organizations and found no reports of Zucker’s arrest. We also searched court records for any documentation of an...
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