Compared with that, stripping out the qualifiers and ignoring the substance/weight of what was said is child’s play. Let’s not start talking about deepfakes.
People can put out whatever garbage they want, and if other people want to be ignorant/stupid/naive and make a decision based upon unconfirmed rumours, even when they can go directly to the source(s) to get the facts or at least the representations in question, those individuals are making a conscious decision to freak themselves out and to allow themselves to be manipulated by people who clearly don’t have their long-term best interests in mind. If that’s their choice, they don’t want to make a decision based on reality, so the reality (vs. the lies) of what I say and write is not a factor in their thinking.