The CDC have announced there has been an Ebola outbreak at Burning Man festival in Nevada. A Forbes article confirms this.
Images claiming to show this have been altered. The CDC made no such announcement and the real Forbes article says there is no Ebola at the festival.
Posts on social media have falsely claimed that there has been an Ebola outbreak at the US festival Burning Man.
Several posts on X (formerly known as Twitter) shared an apparent screenshot of a Forbes article with the headline “Yes, There’s An Ebola Outbreak At Burning Man”.
But this screenshot has been edited. The genuine article had the headline: “No, There’s Not An Ebola Outbreak At Burning Man”. The real article has been updated to reflect that people are sharing a fake version.
Another post features what appears to be a screenshot of a post on X from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saying: “Ebola outbreak confirmed at Black Rock City, NV. It is recommended that all Burning Man attendees remain in their dwellings until further notice. Current State of Emergency in progres.”
There is no evidence the CDC ever tweeted this. A spokesperson told Full Fact: “CDC has not received any reports of Ebola at the Burning Man Festival and has not issued any warnings or had any requests for assistance from the state and local health departments, either.”
The fake CDC post also featured a health advisory graphic for Ebola. The graphic is a genuine one from the CDC that was displayed in US airports around the 2014-16 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, although the line “Recently in West Africa?” has been edited to “Recently in Nevada?” and the map of the region has been replaced with an aerial image of the festival.
A clue it isn’t really addressing the attendees of Burning Man is the plane in the image, and the link to the CDC’s travel page.
Ebola is a rare but serious illness that can spread from infected animals to humans as well as between people. According to the CDC, outbreaks occur primarily in Africa.
There is no evidence that there has been an Ebola outbreak at the Burning Man festival.
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According to the festival, tens of thousands of people flock to the Nevada desert every year to create “Black Rock City, a temporary metropolis dedicated to community, art, self-expression, and self-reliance”. Attendees are supposed to bring everything they need to be self-sufficient and the festival is marked by the burning of a large effigy at the end. Those attending must bring their own water, fire extinguishers and eye protection for dust storms.
Following heavy rain at this year’s event, attendees were told to conserve their food and water as the weather had turned the desert into a mud bath making it difficult for some vehicles to leave the area. According to the BBC, before opening, the site was affected by the “remnants of Hurricane Hilary”.
Local police have launched an investigation into the death of one person at the festival and organisers have said it was unrelated to the bad weather.
These conditions and the reports of a death may have spurred some to start rumours about an Ebola outbreak. We’ve previously looked at false and misleading content spreading following major news events, including the wildfires in Maui, the military coup in Niger and the riots in France.
Image courtesy of Bry Ulrick
Update 5 September 2023
We updated this article to include a response from the CDC.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as altered because the screenshot of the post from the CDC is fake and the Forbes article screenshot has been edited.
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