FACT CHECK: Did The Pentagon Confirm Its ‘Chemtrail Supply’ Was Accidentally Contaminated By SARS-CoV-2?
A viral Instagram post claims the Pentagon paused chemtrail spraying because the supply of liquid used for that purpose was accidentally contaminated with SARS-CoV-2.
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Verdict: False
The Pentagon has not made such an announcement. The article comes from a satire website.
Fact Check:
Some conspiracy theorists baselessly identify the lines of water condensation that aircraft create in the sky as “chemtrails” produced in government weather control, climate change or mind control plots, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The article in the short Instagram video tells the story of the Pentagon allegedly discovering that SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, had entered its “chemtrail fluid supply,” prompting it to command all airlines and military aircraft to stop spraying until the issue’s cause can be found. The Instagram post’s caption remarks, “We been saying this!”
In reality, the Defense Department has not mentioned chemtrails in any of its press releases or social media posts. (RELATED: No, This Video Does Not Prove There Were No Planes Used In The 9/11 Attacks)
In the article, it also alleges that word of chemtrails’ supposedly confirmed existence has “spread online like a virus” and that Fox News reported Donald Trump was thinking about using chemtrails to “immunize the entire country from COVID-19” when he was president. However, Fox News and other national news outlets haven’t reported such a program.
The article, published by Aviation Daily in April 2020, was not written for purposes of deception. Rather, Aviation Daily explicitly notes on its “About” page that it “publishes satire,” and the article itself is tagged as “#satire.”
Despite those disclaimers, some people have shared the article on social media, seemingly under the impression that it was a genuine news report.
