Drinking Bleach, Twitter, and Fake News Unfolding in Real Time
As I write this, a story is spreading through Twitter and Reddit that there are three people in an ED because they drank bleach in responses to Trump’s galling press conference in which he suggested that injecting disinfectant may be a way to treat COVID-19.
I have good news and bad news. The good news: this story is almost certainly fake. The bad news: people are falling for it anyway.
This morning I was scrolling through Facebook. Someone had shared a screenshot of a tweet that read:
“Hi good morning, please don’t drink, bleach or disinfectant of any type.
Currently have 3 in ED that drank the Trump koolaid over night, severe esophageal burns, lung damage”
I hit the “wow” reaction and moved on. But I’ve been trying to do a better job of fact checking the things I react to. So I scrolled back up and decided to look into the matter myself by doing two things.
First, I ran some Google searches to try and locate any news coverage corroborating the story. Nothing.
Second, I decided to go to the Twitter page for the poster, “bums01.” Maybe the handle should have been a tip off. I didn’t find any information about medical training or hospital employment. I did however find a fair amount of…
