The Associated Press checks out some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. This one is bogus, even though it was shared widely on social media. Here are the facts:
CLAIM: Nasal swabs used for COVID-19 tests contain Morgellons disease fibers that are being put in your brain when you are tested for the virus.
THE FACTS: Since the pandemic was declared last year, posts online have falsely speculated that COVID-19 tests are being used to inject Americans with microchips, nanoparticles and now disease “fibers” into the brain. A recent TikTok video making the false claim was viewed more than 1.7 million times and liked more than 120,000 times.
In the TikTok post, a woman plays a video on her computer screen that was first shared on Facebook in January. The woman claims the video shows a nurse who took apart a swab used in COVID-19 tests and found that the fibers were moving on their own because they were fibers from Morgellons disease.
Morgellons sufferers say the condition appears as a crawling sensation on their skin or skin sores with fibers. She goes on to say that people administering COVID-19 tests are putting Morgellons fibers on patients’ brains.
“They are not going to want you to see this,” she says after the video plays.
But the claims in the video are false. The claim that the fibers from the COVID-19 test swab appear to be moving are undermined by the fact that the entire video shakes, suggesting the camera was moving.
The swabs shown in the video are CLASSIQSwabs, which contain rayon, polyester and cotton. There is no evidence of disease particles in those swabs, nor is there COVID research that indicates there is any truth to this video, said Neysa Ernst, nurse manager in the department of medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
“This video is a fake,” said Dr. Aaron E. Glatt, fellow and spokesperson for the Infection Diseases Society of America.
Furthermore, the video makes false claims about Morgellons disease, which some medical studies have shown is an unproven condition. Glatt described the condition as a neuropsychiatric disorder because patients are suffering symptoms that have no cause.
“There is no proof to it whatsoever that it is caused by an infectious disease,” Glatt said about Morgellons disease. “It is not a disease by an organism or anything that is moving.”
Dr. Stephen R. Feldman, professor of dermatology at Wake Forest School of Medicine, said of the video: “Nothing makes any scientific sense about what they are suggesting.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a four-year study that found that Morgellons disease is similar to delusional infestation, where people believe their body is infested with organisms. Delusional infestation is often treated with therapy. Laboratory analysis of the fibers found from people complaining of Morgellons disease were determined to be from cotton.