photo courtesy of PBS/Screenshot
Earlier this week, on August 22, a satirical social media post went viral on Twitter for a post made that spread an untrue rumor of Magic Johnson donating blood. Magic, whos been HIV positive since the early 1990s, is ineligible to do so based on the Red Cross guidelines for HIV-infected people contributing.
In the out-of-context post, Johnson is seen having his blood drawn by a doctor, but the account overlayed text over the post reading, Magic “donated some of his blood to the Red Cross to help underprivileged communities help fight COVID-19.”
A nonsensical statement in itself. The photo itself was confirmed to be old as well.
The account owner has the Twitter tagline reading, “Featured on Associated Press, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Reuters, & more. My posts are all satire. I am not a legitimate news source,” Never facading to be a true news reporting service.
Magic quickly took to Twitter the very next day to deny the accusations. He wrote, “I’m aware of the false story circling the internet, and to be clear. I have never donated blood,”
The Associated Press clarified that the photo included in the post was from 2012 for a documentary called Endgame: AIDS in Black America. He was also getting his blood taken in the image, not having it drawn as the post claims.
According to the Red Cross guidelines, no one who has tested positive for HIV can donate blood, reading verbatim, “Do not give blood if you have AIDS or have ever had a positive HIV test, or if you have done something that puts you at risk for becoming infected with HIV.”