A couple hundred protesters appeared outside the Washington state Department of Health on Wednesday, after "disturbing" COVID-19 vaccine-related falsehoods began spreading on social media late last week, The Seattle Times reports.
The rumors claimed the state Board of Health was on the verge of authorizing "local health officials and police to round up people for refusing to get coronavirus vaccines and forcibly lock them up in quarantine facilities," writes the Seattle Times. Though there was in fact no such plan, the misinformation was seized upon by "anti-vaccine activists, some conservative radio hosts and at least three Republican congressional candidates."
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