From what I remember, it was Rolling Stone who broke that story, or at least managed to give it national attention. Many of those other outlets probably trusted them to have done their homework and only reported it because they did.

But that’s exactly how fake news spreads, isn’t it? One outlet runs a sensational story and everyone else simply reports on it, assuming they did their due diligence. When it eventually turns out to be a hoax, they just issue a correction, but of course that doesn’t get nearly the same amount of attention, so most people miss it and continue to spread unsubstantiated rumors.

I bet if you asked around on the street, you’ll still find people who believe that this is a thing that actually happened during the pandemic.