The news and entertainment website DEADLINE admitted on Thursday to accidentally publishing a story confirming Mike Pence tested positive for COVID-19. The story has since been taken down but not before it spread across social media, prompting people to believe that his pink eye from Wednesday night’s debate was a sign he had the virus.
The story was labeled, “NOT PUBLISH UNTIL THE NEWS CROSSES,” but obviously someone accidentally pressed the button. DEADLINE then issued a statement regarding the accidentally published information.
“A draft post of a story about Vice President Mike Pence testing positive for coronavirus that was never meant to publish was accidentally posted on Deadline.” The news source added that the story was “pulled down immediately.”
“It never should have been posted and Deadline will take steps to see this kind of thing never happens again,” the statement added. “Apologies to the Vice President and our readers. We regret the error.”
Pence had tested negative for the virus each day from Friday to Monday after Donald Trump had tested positive for it. He then tested negative on Wednesday ahead of his Vice Presidential debate with Senator Kamala Harris.
Users on social media were able to screenshot snippets of the article before it was taken down.
