Infodemic: Top 5 coronavirus conspiracy theories

May 12, 2020

Who is responsible for the mysterious coronavirus?

By Aaron Sull, World Israel News

It’s been called an “infodemic” – the spreading of disinformation and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus online. Over 14,500 coronavirus research papers listed on the World Health Organization’s database. Many people are skipping those and going right to the wild coronavirus conspiracies flooding social media. Here are the top 5.

1. A plot against religion

A recent petition signed by some conservative Catholics claims the coronavirus is a “pretext” by unnamed actors to manipulate and control people through panic and deprive them of their fundamental freedoms, including freedom of worship.

It warns that measures to impose contact-tracing devices, require vaccinations and “criminalize” contact between grandparents and grandchildren is “a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control.”

2. Bill Gates

Perhaps no one plays a bigger role in the coronavirus conspiracy theories than Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who for the last decade has been warning about the severe consequences a lack of preparation would cost in lives if a pandemic were to strike.

According to the conspiracy theory, Gates wants to implant digital tracking microchips in everyone. He has also been accused of already having a patent on a vaccine that he will only introduce once the world’s population has diminished by 15 percent.

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3. Beer companies

Even though the Corona beer brand is not scientifically related to the disease, reports have shown an increase in Google searches for “corona beer virus” and “beer coronavirus” over the past three months.

Corona beer is the top-selling imported beer in the United States and also ranks in the top 10 of virtually every popular beer list. In order to snuff out the Mexican Kingpin, lower-ranking beers, such as Keystone Ice and Jinbaili King Benefit Lager released a virus that shares the same name as the pale ale.

4. Netflix

In its lust for money, Netflix released a virus that forces people to stay home and binge on Tiger King all day.

It’s also a bit suspicious that Netflix’s “Pandemic,” a TV series that discusses how to prevent a viral outbreak, came out around the same time that the pandemic escalated. In the world of conspiracy theories, there are no concidences.

5. Kim Kardashian’s Psychic

According to Kim Kardashian, the mysterious coronavirus was foreseen 12 years ago by self-proclaimed psychic Silvia Brown.

In March, Kim Kardashian tweeted an excerpt from Brown’s 2008 book “End Of Days” that quite accurately describes today’s perilous situation:

“‘In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments. Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it arrived, attack again 10 years later, and then disappear completely.”