WATSONVILLE—Jessica Martin was getting ready to go to bed Saturday night when she received a text message from a friend. Then another. And another. And another.
“They just kept coming in,” she said. “It went viral, really viral.”
Her family’s bakery, Rebeca’s Bakery off of Main Street in downtown Watsonville, had been the victim of the hyperspeed rumor mill caused by the widespread scare around COVID-19, the highly-contagious virus that has sickened more than a million people worldwide.
For the last few days, the family has conducted damage control after a social media post falsely claimed one of their employees had worked for another bakery across town that had recently closed because their owner had tested positive for the virus.
La Manzana Bakery on the 1200 block of Main Street has been closed for a few days.
Calls into the bakery were not returned as of Tuesday afternoon.
County of Santa Cruz spokesman Jason Hoppin said he did not know whether the business shuttered its doors because of COVID-19 reasons.
Hoppin said similar fast-spreading rumors have continuously popped up around the county, and that officials at all levels of government have worked quickly to dispel them.
“There have been so many and most of what I hear is not true,” Hoppin said.
Officially, there are 71 COVID-19 cases in Santa Cruz County, including one death.
Though county officials are not expected to release a city-by-city breakdown in the near future, Hoppin did say they would provide a regional breakdown tomorrow.
“We don’t want people in one city to see the numbers and relax and let their guard down,” Hoppin said. “We’re at a critical period right now. We need people to continue to practice social distancing.”
Martin said her family over the past 72 hours has tried to remove mention of the rumor from social media sites. She managed to track down the original author on Facebook and convinced her to delete the post. The author, according to Martin, has not yet published a retraction.
By the time the post was taken down, it had already been shared by hundreds on various Facebook groups and pages. It made its way to Twitter and Instagram, too.
“At this point, I don’t think a correction will do much,” she said. “It’s the nature of the monster. It doesn’t have the same power as the initial shock.”
Martin said the rumor might have been a simple mistake. One of their employees did work for La Manzana, but that was more than two years ago.
Since the start of the shelter-in-place order in mid-March the bakery has beefed up its precautions for employees and customers, Martin said. Employees are required to wear face masks and gloves and are told to stay home if they are sick. The bakery also no longer offers a self-serve option and only allows one customer inside the store at a time.
“We’re following the orders from the county and taking all the precautions to keep everyone safe,” Martin said.
Martin said business was slow Monday, the first day the bakery was open after the rumor started spreading.
“This has hurt us,” she said. “I hope our customers keep coming in and I want to thank them for their support. But this has hurt us.”
Rebeca’s Bakery is open Monday-Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. For information visit rebecas-bakery.com.
