Liberty University on Wednesday filed a $10 million lawsuit against The New York Times for a March story in which it reported that 12 of the institution’s students “were sick with symptoms that suggested COVID-19,” after the college reopened following spring break.
Jerry Falwell Jr..“There was never an on-campus student diagnosed with COVID-19,” said the Lynchburg, Virginia-based Liberty in its suit, reported The Hill.
In a tweet Wednesday, Liberty president Jerry Falwell Jr. said the university filed the suit because the Times “came to our campus from actual virus hotspots and made up completely false claims about COVID-19 cases at Liberty.”
On March 24, even as most colleges and universities stayed closed due to the pandemic, as many as 1,900 students returned to Liberty University after spring break, a university spokesperson confirmed to CNN at the time.
Falwell Jr. said Liberty “finished the school year without a single reported case of COVID-19 on campus.”
