Conspiracy theories and coronavirus

With the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed nearly a hundred thousand lives worldwide and caused unprecedented quarantine measures with radical restrictions on citizens’ rights, the question inevitably arises in the mass consciousness: who is to blame for the coronavirus epidemic? Bats? Pangolins?

The real answer can be much more difficult, as it requires considerable scientific effort. In addition, scientists usually do not give a 100% unambiguous and concise answer, but offer multi-page reports with hypotheses and a bunch of data that confirm or deny these hypotheses. If you want to know “exactly” and “immediately” who is to blame for the pandemic, the so-called “conspiracy theories” can be an alternative to long and difficult searches and explanations. They will “open your eyes” and tell the “real truth” not only about the coronavirus but also about the perpetrators of other historical epidemics. We offer you to get acquainted with some of these theories.

Plague pandemic

The black death of the 14th century. Who is to blame? As it was then considered – the Jews. They poisoned wells, rivers, and other water sources. It was sometimes added that the Jews did so at the request and with the financial support of the “king of the Moors”, who was tired of the constant defeats of the Christians. Or the Jews agreed with the “king of the Saracens” that they would get Jerusalem if they gave Paris to the Saracens. To do this, the Jews bribed people already infected with the plague to spread the disease and poison the ponds.

There are several recipes for the poison allegedly used by the descendants of Judas. For example, a mixture of a lizard’s head, a frog’s paws, a woman’s hair, and a stinking black liquid. Another “recipe” is a powder made from Christian hearts, spiders, frogs, lizards, human flesh, and consecrated bread. At the same time, Jews are accused of bloody slander, in which Jews use the blood of Christian infants in their religious rites and perform human sacrifices.

In fact, the plague spread to settlements where there were no Jewish communities, and where there were such communities, Jews died just like Christians. However, such beliefs resulted in a wave of Jewish pogroms.

Jewish pogroms during the plague (1356)

In the 21st century, accusations of poisoning wells with a mixture of frogs, lizards, and spiders and accusations of bloody bacchanalia look a bit wild. But conspiracy theories are alive and well today because they often give simple and clear answers that find echoes in the stereotypical mass consciousness. The difference is that conspiracy theories have now switched from ethnic-confessional groups to hostile governments or secret or not-so-secret organizations (some of which are still associated with the chosen people). The Pentagon, the CIA, NATO, the State Department, the Bilderberg Club, the Illuminati, Freemasons, Chinese or Soviet Communists, foreign agents, Rockefeller, Soros, aliens, reptiles from the planet Nibiru, and more. They all invent secret weapons or simply conspire to exterminate part of the population, gain global control, and so on. Such trends are typical for both the 20th and 21st centuries.

Spanish flu

The Spanish flu epidemic claimed the lives of more than 20 million people, including Germans. However, some newspapers claimed that the Spanish flu was a German weapon: the Germans brought the Spanish flu to Boston to win the war in their submarines. According to another version, the German pharmaceutical company Bayer added Spanish flu bacilli to aspirin: a person became infected with the flu when he/she tried to relieve a headache. It is also interesting that in different countries the “Spanish flu” was called differently: in Madrid – “Neapolitan soldier”, in Italy – “German disease”, in Germany – “Russian plague”, in Russia – “Chinese disease” and “Spanish flu”, and in Japan – “American disease”. It is noteworthy that almost every mass disease during the war was called “in honor of adversary”, as, for example, has repeatedly happened with syphilis.

Spanish flu
Photo: Universal History Archive

Socialist countries have often accused the United States of using biological weapons and spreading disease on its territory. During the Korean War, the United States allegedly targeted insects and spiders that spread plague, cholera, meningitis, and encephalitis throughout North Korea and northern China. Fidel Castro accused the United States of spreading tropical diseases (dengue fever and hemorrhagic conjunctivitis) in Cuba. Soviet newspapers reported in 1982 that the United States, under the guise of an anti-malarial program in Pakistan, was developing a particularly dangerous mosquito species that would be used as a biological weapon in Afghanistan. Following such allegations, Pakistan expelled the head of the American research center from the country.

HIV / AIDS

HIV / AIDS has also often been portrayed as a virus invented in the United States to kill black people. Soviet propaganda claimed that AIDS was invented at Fort Detrick and used as a biological weapon. In particular, the American vaccination program in Zaire was allegedly designed to spread AIDS. Such theories are still alive. In 2005, about half of African Americans believed that AIDS was a human creation. Both the Minister of Health of South Africa in 2000 and the first African Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2004 put forward the idea of ​​the artificiality of AIDS.

Coronavirus conspiracy theories

And who invented the coronavirus? It would seem that in the age of nanotechnology and the unprecedented transparency of governments, conspiracy theories should have receded into the background and become a haven for the marginalized. However, as it turned out, neither mass education nor total coverage with information resources of almost every step of individuals and legal entities caused the extinction of the “Jews-Masonic archaism”. On the contrary, it seems that the number and variations of explanations in the spirit of “poisoned wells” in today’s globalized world are only increasing. We offer to get acquainted only with some such theories.

  1. The coronavirus was invented by the Pentagon and the CIA or USAID as a biological weapon to counter US geopolitical rivals – the Chinese and the Russians. Moreover, it was brought to China by American soldiers who took part in the World War Games, which took place in Wuhan in October 2019. Sometimes, it is attributed personally to Donald Trump, who previously presented crowns at his beauty pageant and then switched to the coronavirus. Trump is not necessarily to blame, according to another version – it is American bankers who have funded biolabs to create the coronavirus and use it as a weapon to achieve world domination. Then there will be chipping of people and a decrease in birth rates. Sometimes, on the contrary, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are portrayed as allies fighting against the New World Order, and the coronavirus is the final battle of this confrontation.
  2. On the other side of the ocean, the Chinese Communists are accused of inventing the coronavirus to weaken the world and become world masters. According to this version, the coronavirus was invented in a Level 4 research laboratory in Wuhan. Then it was whether used as a bioweapon, or it was released by accident due to a poor security system. Moreover, versions of the communist-Chinese origins of the virus are voiced by quite significant and close to Trump figures of American politics – Steve Benon and Rush Limbo. However, almost a quarter of Americans believe that the coronavirus was invented in the laboratory.
  3. Coronavirus was invented by pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of face masks and antiseptics to make a profit.
  4. The coronavirus was created by the world’s most powerful people, including Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and David Rockefeller, to solve the problem of overpopulation of the Earth. And sometimes the version of the conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies is combined with the version of the involvement of Bill Gates, who is funding a vaccination campaign in Africa.
  5. The coronavirus was invented by the leaders of a deep dark state (something like a secret world government). The aim is to bring people to a state of critical panic with subsequent vaccination, chipping, the establishment of total control. Sometimes a lighter version of this theory is used – the coronavirus is a large social experiment to see how the population will accept repression (restrictions on rights) without revolt.
  6. One of the means of spreading coronavirus is 5G communication. This was mentioned in one of the videos, which gained millions of views. The video was removed, and related gossips were blocked. And all in all, in early April alone, more than 20 communications towers were burned in the UK, some of which were equipped with only 3G and 4G.

In general, the coronavirus has not yet spawned a fundamentally new conspiracy theory. Conspiracies by laboratories, banks, pharmaceutical campaigns, secret governments, or the intrigues of a particular government of an unfriendly country are topics that existed during previous epidemics and did not require epidemics at all. These are more or less established objects of conspiracy theories, and the coronavirus epidemic simply adds coronavirus to other conspiracies.

But maybe really this virus is still a biological weapon? If the coronavirus was created artificially (and scientists have proven that this is not the case), then, as a biological weapon, the coronavirus is very ineffective. Mortality from it does not exceed 10%, according to the most pessimistic estimates. For comparison – anthrax (Anthrax) can lead to death in 50-90% of cases. The virus affects citizens of all countries, causing them huge losses (both human and economic), so the version that country A used the coronavirus against country B – also does not stand up to criticism, because both sides suffer. After all, both the United States and China are perhaps most interested in world trade, and the coronavirus is hitting trade.

The variety and depth of conspiracy theories are truly impressive. How do so many conspiracy theories arise, and why do they gain such influence in times of epidemics? There are many explanations, but in this article, it is worth mentioning two of them.

  1. Social paranoia. In the condition of uncertainty, in the presence of a significant threat, people try to create for themselves a holistic, consistent picture of the world, in which everything is clear and understandable, thus providing imaginary control over the epidemic. Here, conspiracy theories come to the rescue, offering simple, reasonable explanations to citizens (non-biologists, non-chemists, non-physicians, and other “no”).
  2. Political tool. Although the epidemic has quarantined part of normal life, politics does not know quarantine. Therefore, to increase their power, avoid responsibility or discredit political opponents, some politicians invent, launch, or simply support some conspiracy theories.

These two explanations are not mutually exclusive. Social paranoia does grow during epidemics, and politicians use it as a tool in their relentless struggle.

For illustration, you can look in the direction of Ukraine’s northern neighbor. Do Russian officials believe that Navalny’s FBK is spreading the coronavirus or even handing out masks infected with the coronavirus to doctors? Government officials themselves may not believe this, but the conspiracy theory, which consists of portraying a public organization as a foreign agent and spy, has now been adapted to the epidemic. And now, this conspiracy theory used to maintain power in non-epidemic times is being applied during a pandemic.

Conspiracy theories may seem like innocent tales. But this is not the case. In medieval Europe, bloody Jewish pogroms followed the spread of such tales, and in modern Britain – the destruction of communications towers. The belief that coronavirus is only infected, for example, by the Chinese, can lead to the spread of the epidemic among non-Chinese, i.e., to real human casualties. We should not forget about other effects, such as the strengthening of authoritarianism (if the country’s citizens are successfully convinced that democracy is a Masonic conspiracy, and Democrats are spreading US biological weapons – the coronavirus). Therefore, conspiracy theories are not innocent tales.

Thus, the spread of epidemics has always coincided with the spread of conspiracy theories. Social paranoia during outbreaks is skillfully used as a political tool. The poisoning of wells by a mixture of frogs and spiders is separated from biological weapons and chipping by a distance of 650 years. However, the idea that a conspiracy caused the epidemic is still alive.

P.S. It doesn’t matter if the coronavirus is invented or not. The government, under the control of reptilians, will soon destroy it by spraying chemicals from helicopters, so close the windows at night.