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Advertisement

    
 1. Florida Politics


PUNDITFACT: TWO CLAIMS THAT ARE DEFINITELY NOT TRUE ABOUT EBOLA OUTBREAK


4
 
 



Health workers carry the body of a man suspected of dying in the street from the
Ebola virus in the capital city of Monrovia, Liberia, on Tuesday. [Associated
Press]
By
 * Katie SandersManaging editor of PolitiFact
 * PolitiFact


Published Aug. 14, 2014
Advertisement


As the Ebola outbreak grows in Africa, misinformation about the epidemic is
spreading about the crisis here in America.

The culprit: the Internet.

Several conspiracy websites have raised questions lately about a "bioweapons
lab" in Sierra Leone being the source of the virus. Questions like, "What's
behind the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone? Could it possibly be a U.S.
bioweapons project gone amuck?"

Some of the websites tie the "bioweapons lab" to billionaires George Soros and
Bill and Melinda Gates.

"At the epicentre of the current Ebola epidemic is the Kenema Government
Hospital in Sierra Leone, which houses a U.S. a (sic) biosecurity level 2
bioweapons research lab with links to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and
Soros Foundation," reads an excerpt shared on sites like RumorMillsNews.com and
BeforeItsNews.com.



There's no proof of Soros and Gates funding a bioweapons lab in Kenema, one of
the largest cities in Sierra Leone with a population of about 150,000. And
there's really no case that a bioweapons lab in Kenema is behind the outbreak.

"The assertion is absurd," said Chris Williams, spokesman for the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation did provide a $1 million
Ebola-related grant to support emergency efforts in West Africa by UNICEF, he
said.

A spokeswoman for Soros' Open Society Foundations also said it does not fund any
labs, much less a bioweapons lab, in West Africa.

We can't exactly pinpoint the reason people are connecting Soros and the Gates
family to the Ebola outbreak, but our best guess is people are trying to
insinuate they had something to do with creating the current crisis.

One blogger who invoked the Soros/Gates connection, Dublinsmick, referenced the
website of the "viral fever bioweapons lab inside Kenema Government Hospital,"
saying it "read like a roll call of New World Order organizations."

The New World Order is a popular conspiracy theory whereby a group of wealthy
elites plan to take over the world.

As for the "bioweapons lab," it appears to be a reference to the Viral
Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium, which has focused its work on Lassa fever — a
viral disease with symptoms that resemble Ebola but that is more common than
Ebola in that area.



So no connection to Soros and the Gates family and no bioweapons lab. This claim
rates Pants on Fire.

The Obama connection

Bloggers also are behind a claim that "President (Barack) Obama signed an
executive order mandating the detention of Americans who show signs of
'respiratory illness.' "

This, too, rates Pants on Fire.

The executive order in question is much more targeted than the article
describes, it isn't aimed at Ebola, and while it allows health officials to
quarantine someone with a highly contagious disease, it does not mandate it.

On July 31, Obama modified a 2003 executive order from President George W. Bush.
The original order listed the communicable diseases for which the Department of
Health and Human Services was authorized to issue an isolation or quarantine
order.

Obama updated a particular reference to SARS to include a broader array of
possible respiratory illnesses. But the update has nothing to do with Ebola or
the current outbreak. Ebola is not a respiratory disease (the most prominent
symptoms are diarrhea and vomiting) and the original 2003 executive order
already listed Ebola.

Also, the updated order does not "mandate" the apprehension and detention of
people who show signs of respiratory illness.

Wendy Parmet, a law professor at Northeastern University School of Law, is one
of three legal scholars who prepared a report for the American Civil Liberties
Union that warned about overreach by the government in responding to pandemics.
While Parmet said the new text is very broad, it has clear limits.



"It only applies to those with symptoms of a disease that have caused or have
the potential to cause a pandemic, or have the potential of causing mortality or
serious morbidity," Parmet said. "I wouldn't think the typical cold would
apply."

In fact, the order specifically excludes the flu.

Lastly, the order is limited in whom it could affect. The Department of Health
and Human Services could isolate people only as they enter the country or
attempt to travel from one state to another.

In other scenarios, the power to isolate or quarantine individuals rests with
the states, Parmet said.

Read the full fact-checks at PunditFact.com.

Up next:Early voting in Hernando begins Saturday at four locations


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 * Katie Sanders
   
   Managing editor of PolitiFact
   
   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------







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