My Brother the Idiot - Ebola Hoax

Published

To say that common sense is not my brother's strong suit would be very kind, but today he managed to screw up so bad I actually called him to yell irate and unpleasant things at him.

I was scrolling through my Facebook feed when I saw my brother had posted a link claiming that an unidentified man had been diagnosed with Ebola in a major city near me, at the hospital where I work. Came complete with a picture of my hospital, company name and all! I being cautiously worried tried to click on the link but it was blocked by my browser as being am untrustworthy site. I tried verifying this with other legitimate sites but no one had anything.

I commented on his post that if he can't substantiate his information he should take it down. I then dug a little more and found that the same website had run similar stories about my sister hospitals in a nearby state. I demanded he take the link down immediately.

He texted me that he was just kidding, that the site was just a hoax site, and that it was all done just for fun. That's when I started dialing.

It's not a joke. That's my livelihood. If people shun my hospital because they don't realize it's a hoax, I could lose my job. It could cause a massive strain on medical resources when droves of people with the sniffles come in convinced they got "the ebola" from someone sneezing at the food court. It could incite violence against our immigrated population. It could cause a stupid, useless panic.

It could ostracize my kids, if people think I've been exposed to it "just like the nurses in Texas".

So I've done my best to explain to him why this is no joking matter, and just how stupid and dangerous it was. Anyone seen anything like this in their area? Are you doing anything to combat the craziness?

I'm just at a loss for words.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU.

Can you report the post as spam? It doesn't stop him from doing it in the future, but if he does it enough times in the future, and it keeps getting reported, FB may start blocking his posts. Hopefully the people who can see your wall are astute enough to understand that he's just posting hoaxes, and that your responses put their potential fears to rest.

Good luck...you're in a tough spot, but some people just don't learn from their mistakes.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Vents, Telemetry, Home Care, Home infusion.

Can you reporting hoax site to Facebook along with your concerns to see if they can block it?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Psych.

I love my family so much more now that I given up FB.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion