Two teenagers dressed in hazmat suits pranked subway riders in New York City by spilling a vat of fake COVID-19 on a packed train, reports the New York Post.
The virus has killed more than 1,100 people and infected over 45,000 people worldwide. The vast majority of cases are in mainland China.
The teens, David Flores, 17, and Morris Cordewell, 19, posted videos of the prank on Instagram. The liquid, which was actually Kool-Aid, did not contain the virus.
"That better be Kool-Aid," one passenger on the L train said to the teens in the suits.
"Oh, h*** no," a woman said when the men opened the clear container, labeled "WARNING,” and spilled it onto the floor.
"The first half people were kinda scared," Cordewell told Insider. "After we were like, 'Yo it's a prank,' people were laughing."
"There was one lady with her kids sitting next to me just laughing the whole time. I don't know how she knew it was a joke, but she knew it was a joke the whole time," Cordewell continued.
"They kinda figured it out themselves, though," Flores added.
Some people on social media took issue with the prank.
"I'm two sided," one person commented on the video on Flores' Instagram. "One, it's pretty serious right now and many people have died from the virus, but it's good that their [sic] lifting people's spirits and making people laugh."
"NOT funny," another wrote. "Please clean the mess on your way out."