Fact check: Dr Anthony Fauci has not been arrested, posts feature doctored image
Users on social media are sharing a picture that appears to show the front page of a newspaper carrying a report that Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has been arrested. This claim is false, the image has been doctored to include a false headline and a photograph that has been digitally altered.
Posts with this claim are visible on Twitter here and Facebook here , here . Some iterations of the claim that only feature the doctored image of Dr. Fauci have also circulated in Spanish here .
The text on the alleged article reads “Dr. Fauci arrested for seditious conspiracy” and “COVID-19 Hoax!”
While the image is clearly manipulated, it appears to have caused confusion. Some comments read: “He should be in prison forever” and “WTF CRICKETS FROM MEDIA.”
There is no evidence to support the claim that Dr Fauci has been arrested. An event of this kind would have been widely reported on by news organizations. Recent public appearances of Dr Fauci are visible here youtu.be/yQTkoCz9KT8 , youtu.be/EKPQaxwYXeg , youtu.be/5rKt54x6Hp0 .
A reverse image search shows the newspaper front page used in this claim is a doctored version of the fictional copy of USA Today featured in the movie Back to the Future II (hinted also by the futuristic font in their logo here , here ) .
USA Today has also debunked this claim here .
The earlier iterations of the picture within the false USA Today front page are from an article entitled ‘Trump Administration Plants 137,000 Corpses In Fauci’s Bed To Frame Him For Coronavirus Deaths’ on the satirical website The Onion here on July 13, 2020.
Jordan LaFlure, Managing Editor of The Onion, confirmed to Reuters via Twitter message that this photo was made by their team for the purpose of their satirical article.
Reuters was unable to locate the background and the policemen in this image. The image appears to have been digitally constructed from multiple images. The body of the person arrested appears to be from this photograph here bit.ly/3ctRi80 (see wrinkles) showing FBI agents escorting Former Suffolk County police chief James Burke on December 9, 2015 ( here ) .
The superimposed headshot of Dr. Fauci appears to be a photograph visible here by the AP. The original image shows Fauci wearing a Washington Nationals face mask on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on June 30, 2020.
VERDICT
False. Dr Fauci has not been arrested. Posts feature doctored images.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here .
