5 Coronavirus rumours that need dispelling
The deadly Coronavirus has lit up the internet. Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn are overflowing with stories, news and statistics. But like a game of Chinese whispers, myths, rumours and misinformation are spreading.
Here are five coronavirus rumours that need to be challenged.
1. The coronavirus is a new and deadly disease
This is wrong. Coronaviruses are common and have been infecting human victims for thousands of years. In fact, most of the time when you get infected with one, you don’t realise it and assume it’s a cold.
That said, this strain is really bad and has led to some patients developing pneumonia and other secondary infections. This is what’s killing a small percentage of the weakest and most vulnerable patients.
In other words, it’s not new or necessarily deadly. But it can cause death in a small proportion of the population. For that reason alone, it needs to be stopped, which is why it’s being taken so seriously in China.
2. The coronavirus came from bat soup
There are several videos of Asian people circulating around the internet, showing them eating bats and drinking bat soup. The problem is that these videos aren’t in many instances, taken in China. Most were taken in Palau, Indonesia. The Observers website did a great job of researching and debunking these videos, so hats off to them.
The truth is we don’t actually know for certain where the virus came from. Three-quarters of viruses do indeed originate from animals, so animals are the likely suspect. But we don’t know which species it came from: it could be from bats, snakes or stray dogs. Popular Science has a good article explaining why it might have come from animals if you are interested.
3. Drinking bleach will cure you
According to the Daily Beast, promoters of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory were urging their fans to ward off the illness by purchasing and drinking dangerous bleach.
This group calls the stuff “Miracle Mineral Solution”. It’s been promoted as a miracle cure and vaccine for everything from autism to cancer and HIV/AIDS. The US Food and Drug Administration have, however, described it as a “dangerous bleach”.
All I can say is that you would have to be seriously stupid to believe drinking bleach is a cure for the coronavirus.
4. Bill Gates planned the coronavirus outbreak to profit from it
The Gates Foundation has given a multi-million-dollar grant to an organisation to work on vaccines for a coronavirus strain. This however, is not the same strain of virus in China.
Do you remember what I said about the corona virus being around for thousands of years? Well this strain has been around for a long time and has nothing to do with the outbreak in China.
The Gates Foundation has actually been funding research to prevent pandemics for years and the coronavirus is just one of the many viruses it is battling against. This is something they’re passionate about, along with eradicating cholera and ensuring access to clean drinking water for people in the developing world.
Bill Gates certainly didn’t plan the outbreak in China, nor has he tried to profit from it. In fact, the Gates Foundation is a non-profit.
5. There were already coronavirus patents filed for a vaccine before the outbreak
A Twitter user stumbled onto a patent filed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a coronavirus genetic sequence. The rumour mill then went wild, claiming that the government had manufactured the virus for nefarious purposes so it could profit from the vaccine.
Other patents relating to the coronavirus were also dug up. The problem is that the patents being shared are for previous viruses. One is for avian infectious bronchitis and the other for SARS.
Again, these are for different strains of the virus. Furthermore, to date no vaccine is currently available for any variant of the coronavirus.
Ultimately, the coronavirus scare proves that false information is often more dangerous than the infection itself. The solution is to be more transparent about what is going on. This I fear is something the Chinese government will continue to struggle with.
