A recent viral report that “the 3-person disaster assessment team sent to Myanmar [in the wake of an earthquake] for the U.S. received termination notices while staying/sleeping outside” is fake news, a State Department spokesperson exclusively told the Washington Reporter.

“No one was fired,” a senior State Department official told the Reporter.

The claim, by PBS News’s Lisa Desjardins, has gone viral — but the reality, according to a senior State Department official, is that “our team leads on the ground in Burma have reported back that the response is going well and they are able to execute their assignment.”

“Per the notice sent out last week,” the official continued. “All USAID personnel were either given a 1-July or 2-September termination date.”

“There have been no changes to that plan. Any assertion otherwise was likely based on a deliberate leak by someone trying to spread a fake narrative for their own political agenda.”