On-the-ground nurse responds to rumour of Ebola at chaotic Burning Man festival

04 September 2023 , 13:24

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A nurse at Burning Man responded to rumours of an Ebola outbreak at the festival (Image: BurningMan.org)

There is no Ebola at Burning Man, says an EMS nurse who works in a hospital established at the festival — and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) isn't there, either.

Mass panic ensued after heavy rains flooded the playa at Black Rock City in Nevada over Labor Day weekend, stranding tens of thousands of people in the harsh desert. With the desert terrain having turned to mud, it became impossible to drive in or out of the area, even for many emergency vehicles, leaving everyone without easy access to food, water and medical supplies.

Videos have surfaced of festival-goers trekking through the mud, walking endless loops around the campsites that span around five square miles (13 square km) searching for essentials or trying to find places to use the bathrooms — the portable toilets were also unable to be cleaned for days without any sanitation trucks allowed into the festival.

There have been many reports of individuals hiking over six miles (9.6 km) to the nearest roads and hitchhiking back to civilisation. Celebrities DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock were among those who opted to leave the festival in such a manner.

Rumours of a mass virus outbreak due to the unsanitary and confined conditions have also sparked controversy across the nation, especially after one festival-goer died of unknown causes. Many have taken to TikTok and Twitter, now known as X, to report Ebola cases and a FEMA response in the area.

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Jenna Roxbury, who works in a hospital at the festival as a nurse, posted several videos to her nearly 700,000-follower TikTok account debunking those myths. In one that garnered nearly 6,000 likes and over 100,000 views, she asked her coworkers about the rumours.

The mud made it impossible for vehicles to enter or exit the Burning Man festival, stranding thousands (AFP via Getty Images)

"OK, these rumours are getting wild. I'm going to ask my coworkers here if they have seen Ebola on the playa," she begins the video, which is captioned: "I'm currently at my hospital ON the Playa with other doctors and nurses! Don't believe the rumours!"

"Have you seen Ebola?" she asks them in turn, to which they both respond with a resolute "no."

In another video posted shortly afterward, which garnered around 13,000 views and almost 900 likes, she stitches another TikToker who speculated the cause FEMA's allegedly quick response to the festival despite the organisation's delayed response to the Maui wildfires, which sparked outrage a month ago.

Festival-goers were left to fend for themselves in tents with little rations and unsanitary conditions (AFP via Getty Images)

"FEMA is not here, OK? Could you please stop? Could you guys stop with all this nonsense?" Roxbury interjects. "I am here on the playa at my hospital, and everybody's OK. There is no Ebola."

She continued: "Someone said somebody tested positive for Ebola. We don't even have the capability to run a CBC [a complete blood count test]. You think we're going to do Ebola, which is probably some sort of send out? No. FEMA's not here. Ebola's not here."

"We are all having a good time," she concluded. "We're all still just having a good time, just waiting this out."

Comedian Willonius Hatcher was among those stranded at Burning Man this weekend (AFP via Getty Images)

She also said there was no fence being erected on the perimeter of the festival to keep people in, and she debunked rumours of a syphilis outbreak as well.

There are, however, a few illnesses and ailments going around, she said: "We're still just seeing here on the playa at the hospital broken bones, UTIs, some strep throat — the usual."

A few other individuals, including Twitter user @FlashFactsHub, reported that some other minor illnesses have resulted from "the highly alkaline dust/mud from the lake bed" where the festival is held.

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Roxbury emphasised in her TikToks, however, that people are still having fun and were looking forward to literally burning the man, a large wooden effigy that's torched each year that marks the conclusion of the festival.

Jeremiah Hassel