|
?:reviewBody
|
-
Amidst the COVID-19 coronavirus disease pandemic in March 2020, the Purcellville, Virginia, police department announced via Facebook that it was investigating an incident at a local grocery store involving juveniles reportedly coughing on produce, while filming themselves and posting it on social media. Although news reports stated that the store removed the tainted items and has reportedly taken appropriate health safety measures to protect the public, the Purcellville Police Department's post prompted wider concern because it declared that the coughing on produce incident appears to be a disturbing trend on social media across the country: However, we haven't yet turned up any reports (verified or otherwise) of youngsters deliberately coughing on foodstuffs in stores (or other similar activities), other than this single suspected occurrence in Virginia. Moreover, news reports about the purported incident indicated that police had not actually turned up video of this particular alleged occurrence, either taken by the suspected perpetrators themselves or captured on store security cameras: The Purcellville Police Department soon afterwards issued a statement in which they acknowledged that no actual customers or produce were spit or coughed on directly: We asked the Purcellville Police Department for additional information on the subject but had not received a response at publication time.
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}