A bizarre conspiracy theory circulating on social media claims the Burning Man festival was shut down and a national emergency declared due to an Ebola outbreak. Some posts repeating the claim include a fake screenshot of a health authority post confirming the outbreak.
Recommendation: Responding to every conspiracy theory may detract from priority talking points. There was no Ebola outbreak and no national emergency was declared. In fact, thousands of festival-goers were left stranded in the Nevada desert after storms caused flooding and road closures. This misinformation on Ebola in online vaccine conversations–as opposed to COVID-19 or other vaccines like HPV–was unusual in part because ERVEBO, the Ebola Zaire vaccine, is not currently commercially marketed in the U.S. It is only stockpiled in the Strategic National Stockpile and made available through CDC for pre-exposure vaccination of individuals. Fact-checking sources: