Get PolitiFact in your inbox.

Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke June 2, 2021

The military didn’t arrest Deborah Birx in spite of social media posts

If Your Time is short

  • Deborah Birx wasn’t arrested.
 

In the wake of a CNN interview in which Donald Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator described uncomfortable conversations with the then-president about COVID-19, misinformation is spreading about the doctor. 

"U.S. military arrests Dr. Deborah Birx," reads a screenshot of a May 29 headline.

But it’s from a website that has previously published false news stories with claims that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hanged at Guantanamo Bay, that Navy SEALs arrested her, that Trump indicted Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and that an assassination attempt on Trump’s life was foiled.

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Featured Fact-check

"The United States military has arrested Dr. Deborah Birx, also known as ‘the scarf lady,’ after authenticating reports that she and her partner in crime, the still at-large Dr. Anthony Fauci, had conspired with the CDC to intentionally deceive the American public into believing that face masks are an effective method to mitigate the spread of COVID-19," the post on Real Raw News says

Sign up for PolitiFact texts

Experts say that masks can be effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19. And there is nothing to corroborate the unfounded allegation that Birx was arrested. 

Like many of the other stories we have rated from this site, this post, too, gets a Pants on Fire!

 

Our Sources

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke

The military didn’t arrest Deborah Birx in spite of social media posts

Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up