The Rise of Conspiracy Beliefs About the Coronavirus Disease

A man passes graffiti reading 'cov 19: hoax', in South London, as the UK continues in lockdown to help curb the spread of coronavirus. Credit:Dominic Lipinski

 Most of us are compelled to stay at home due to the widely- spread coronavirus. It’s no brainer that avoiding physical meeting with people can help us prevent getting the contagious virus whose long-term effects and cure are not yet known. During the coronavirus disease pandemic rising in 2020, governments and non-governmental organizations across the globe have taken great efforts to curb the infection rate by promoting or legally prescribing behaviour that can reduce the spread of the virus. At the same time, this pandemic has given rise to speculations and conspiracy theories. Conspiracy worldviews have been connected to a refusal to trust science, the biomedical model of disease, and legal means of political engagement in previous research (Imhoff and Lamberty,2020).

 

The number of people who deny this current pandemic to be a hoax or a conspiracy theory seems to be growing. Past research shows that the increase in conspiracy theories during a pandemic is not a new phenomenon: Especially in times of crises, conspiracy thinking increases substantially (e.g., Van Prooijen and Douglas, 2017). For virtually all major events over the past decades, official versions of why these came about were confronted with various conspiracy allegations that proposed an explanation involving plots hatched in secret by powerful agents instead. 

Myths on the corona virus: 

There are several myths on the Covid-19. Here are some of the falsehoods about the pandemic:

1.     The novel coronavirus was engineered in a lab in China.

2.     Wealthy elites intentionally spread the virus to win power and profit.

3.     COVID-19 is no worse than the flu.

4.     Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment.

5.     You don’t need to wear a mask.

 

The main seems to be corona not being any dangerous than the common flu. We don't have any vaccines or natural immunity to this virus yet as we do for other similar illnesses like the flu or common cold. Here is an article detailing the differences between coronavirus and flu.

Unlike the flu, you should take this disease seriously because it has a much higher mortality rate (so far), standing at somewhere around 3 to 4%. This means, for every 100 people that contract this disease, approximately 3 to 4 people will die. Now, the mortality rate for Nepal is currently around 0.62% (280 dead out of 45,277 total cases as per Sept 5 information) which doesn't seem too bad. However, this rate was just 0.28% a month ago (60 dead out of 21,390 total cases per Aug 5 info) and 0.21% two months ago (34 dead out of 15,784 cases Jul 5 info). It took a month to go from 34 dead to 60 dead and then the numbers nearly quintupled in another month. This is a clear example of exponential growth. This is expected since the number of cases has seen exponential growth as well. These graphs were taken from data available at this.

 

A message was circulating in Nepali social media recently. Here goes the message:

This message is full of myths, hoax and misinformation. Unfortunately, this message has been quite effective in fooling a lot of people. It’s a shame that no one seems to take action to address these misinformations especially in Nepal. A simple google search can provide articles and news sources which can prove these false.

Let's start from the top!

• PCR Test ban in Italy

        Italy hasn't banned any PCR test. Its false information. As you can see in this article,Italy has opened its border for tourism and PCR test is REQUIRED for certain countries.

• WHO Representatives were expelled from Burundi

         Burundi government expelled 4 top WHO officials sometime around May. It became a political agenda when those officials raised voice again rising cases of corona virus. Here is an article on WHO seeking details on staff expusion.

•  Boycotting WHO

         No article was found which stated that 45 countries have boycotted WHO.  However, the USA didhalt funding for WHO as Trump wasn't satisfied with WHO's response to Covid-19.

• 99% of Italy's CORONA VIRUS deaths were from other illness

        This is true. Patients with underlying health conditions are very much likely to be the victim of corona virus. But we should also consider that almost 96% of the people who died were aged 60 or above according to ISS Italy National Health Institute as shown in article by Bloomberg.

• PCR Kit and "Not for Medical Use" 

 No article was found which stated PCR kit is not for medical use. It's an old testing technique, its evolving and working. This article says "ddPCR" is used to identify mutations in lung cancer.

• COVID Test in Fruits and Birds shows Positive in Tanzania

        The claim Tanzanian president made seems mostly political. He failed to act quickly to tackle the corona virus. Also, he is questioning the kit they received in aid. It is also known that Italy and Spain also questioned the kit they received from China. Later he also claimed that Madagascar has the herbal treatment to corona virus.

•  Lastly normal deaths v/s deaths due to Corona virus (Excess Mortality)

        Excess mortality is a term used in epidemiology and public health that refers to the number of deaths above and beyond what we would have expected to see under ‘normal’ conditions. It's recorded by tracking deaths and projecting data from the past. These data aren't recorded by all countries. I couldn't find any data on our population. But the Conversation Media Group Ltd predicts that there were up to 204,691extra deaths in the US through the end of July.

 

 

 What can we do?

Acting against misinformation in the infodemic is everyone’s responsibility. Without trying to demystify every piece of false news, we can always reduce its scope. Here are five measures to prevent the spread of misinformation:

• Be critical when you look at social media.
• Don’t leave false information in your online networks. You can politely ask the person who shared it to remove it.
• Report the false information to the platform administrators.
• When in doubt, take the time to verify the shared information.
• Make more noise than people who share false information.

References:

Imhoff, R. and Lamberty, P., 2020. A Bioweapon or a Hoax? The Link Between Distinct Conspiracy Beliefs About the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Outbreak and Pandemic Behavior. Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Lewis, T., 2020. Nine COVID-19 Myths That Just Won&Rsquo;T Go Away. [online] Scientific American. Available at: <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nine-covid-19-myths-that-just-wont-go-away/> [Accessed 9 September 2020].

The Conversation. 2020. 5 Ways To Help Stop The 'Infodemic,' The Increasing Misinformation About Coronavirus. [online] Available at: <https://theconversation.com/5-ways-to-help-stop-the-infodemic-the-increasing-misinformation-about-coronavirus-137561> [Accessed 9 September 2020].

u/ThinAsAStick. “About Covid-19 and people who consider it a hoax or a conspiracy theory.” Reddit,2020,https://www.reddit.com/r/Nepal/comments/inkdzb/about_covid19_and_people_who_consider_it_a_hoax/

u/Sandeez. “Corona.” Reddit,2020, https://www.reddit.com/r/Nepal/comments/ilpouj/corona/