Is FEMA at Burning Man? Virus Outbreak Conspiracy Theory Spreads Online

After the Burning Man festival was hit by freak flooding that left attendees stranded at the Nevada desert campsite, wild conspiracy theories have emerged online claiming that the site was now subject to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) assistance due to a virus outbreak.

Some have claimed that festivalgoers had contracted Ebola—a disease that emerged in central Africa—despite one local nurse who attended the festival denying it was the case.

The festival is held on the Black Rock Desert playa, an evaporated lake bed, around 150 miles north of Reno. According to the Reno Gazette Journal, the dust of the playa is alkaline and prolonged exposure can cause skin irritations and lung complaints, but is thought to be safe by medical experts.

A FEMA spokesperson confirmed to Newsweek that no personnel had been deployed to the Burning Man festival.

One person has died and thousands have been stranded at Burning Man after storms hit the usually arid region. Festivalgoers have been urged to "shelter in place" until the waters subside, and to also conserve food and other supplies.

Pershing County Sheriff's Office said that some vehicles have been able to leave, but in doing so had churned up the soft mud formed by the rain and dust on the playa, damaging the surface. The festival's organizers urged those remaining to stay on-site until the conditions improved.

While some have likened the conditions to the savagery in Lord of the Flies, many attendees have said spirits remain high and those trapped were continuing to enjoy themselves, despite the festival's official end on Sunday night.

However, since news emerged of the "emergency," some have made outlandish claims about its true severity.

"It was announced earlier that Burning Man was declared a national emergency because it was flooded, and so they sent in FEMA—which already seemed kind of like a weird reason to send in FEMA," one TikToker who has 18,000 followers on the platform said in a video which has garnered 2.8 million views.

A national emergency has not been declared over the flooding at the festival and individuals who are actually at the site have denied the presence of FEMA workers.

"Now there's some new terrifying information coming out that there's a virus on the loose in the festival," the TikToker continued, citing unfounded social media claims. "Freaking ebola at Burning Man guys."

The same TikTok user later released another video, viewed a little over 5,000 times, where she appeared to roll back on the claims, stating the reports were "hopefully just a combination of a paranoia outbreak and valley fever," a seeming misidentification of the dust-related condition known locally as "playa lung."

Screenshots of text messages, purportedly from festivalgoers, have circulated online, including claims that one person was "coughing up really coagulated blood" and that a medic "showed up wearing a full suit." Another claimed: "They're saying it's ebola."

The TikTok video below contains some profanity.

Several Twitter users have been sharing a screenshot of a doctored tweet purportedly from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supposedly confirming the Ebola outbreak.

"The online rumors of transmissible illnesses in Black Rock City [the Burning Man festival site] are unfounded and untrue," the festival's organizers wrote on Sunday.

"There's no ebola cases here," Jenna Roxbury, a nurse and Burning Man attendee, informed her nearly 700,000 TikTok followers on Sunday. "I'm hearing all sorts of rumors [about what] is going on with us here. We're doing our best, we're Burners, we're hunkering down."

In a follow-up video, she asked her co-workers at the medical facility on the plain if they had seen Ebola, and all responded in the negative.

"FEMA is not here, there is not a fence going up around the perimeter," Roxbury added. "We're still just seeing here on the playa, at the hospital, broken bones, UTIs, some strep throat—the usual."

Angie Peacock, another attendee, told her more than 500,000 TikTok followers on Sunday: "There is no ebola outbreak and there is no f****** fence being built. You guys are ridiculous."

Meanwhile, other users claimed, without evidence, that Los Angeles International Airport had been evacuated due to a private jet from Burning Man "being quarantined on the tarmac."

As the local CBS news channel reported on Saturday, part of the airport's ticket hall had been evacuated over a suspicious package, which was later deemed safe.

Update 09/04/2023 5:33 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include further details.

Update 09/05/2023 5:44 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from FEMA.