Coronavirus: 'I faked having Covid-19 on Facebook and got arrested'

Michael Lane Brandin knew his Facebook post would cause a stir.

What he didn't realise was that he'd be arrested, lose his job and face a trial that could see him behind bars.

It was an otherwise dull afternoon in March and the debate about how to cope with the potential outbreak of Covid-19 was all over his timeline.

So he decided to, in his words, "do a social experiment".

Mr Brandin posted that he'd tested positive for coronavirus. And then he added that doctors had told him that the virus was now airborne.

That would mean it had suddenly become far easier to catch it than by simply being too close to an infected individual who coughs or sneezes in your general direction.

But he had made it up.

Mr Brandin says his point was to demonstrate that you can't always believe everything you read online.

On Facebook, he was met with sympathy and shock. "I had quite a few reactions," he says. "A lot of friends messaged me to ask if I was OK, so I told them that it was fake."

And while he was trying to explain the truth to upset friends, what was happening offline became far more serious.

The fake news spread like wildfire across Tyler County, in Texas, where he lived.

This was days before any lockdown had been brought in. But anxious people began to call the local hospital and ask if the news was true: how could they now protect themselves from an airborne invisible killer?

Arrest warrant
Soon the Typer County Sheriff's Office heard what was going on. Police contacted Mr Brandin and told him to amend his post - which he did.