The coronavirus news cycle runs 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. Every website, every channel, every newspaper is currently filled with data, graphs, and projections. It’s overwhelming and exhausting.
You don’t have to look further than Facebook to find conspiracy theories warning the science and data is false. Here are five of the most bizarre unsubstantiated conspiracy theories out there.
WUHAN LAB BIOWEAPON
A senator tweeted out this theory back in January. Just goes to show that holding public office doesn’t make people any more inclined to fact check or research what they share on social media. The theory claims that a laboratory in Wuhan with lax safety protocol released the coronavirus, either from an infected lab tech or as a bioweapon against the United States.
5G CELL TOWERS CREATED THE VIRUS
There’s impressive logical gymnastics to relate wireless communication 5G technology to a highly transmissible virus. One theory states that the 5G towers help the virus travel along the wireless frequency. Another says there is no coronavirus and 5G technology is causing illness and deaths. A third posits that 5G destroys immune systems, making people more susceptible to the virus.
The fact that all these theories are bonkers hasn’t stopped people around the world from destroying 5G towers to save their communities from the pandemic. So much effort. They could save lives just by staying home and binging Netflix.
A GLOBAL ELITE RELEASED CORONAVIRUS TO USHER IN A NEW WORLD ORDER
The New World Order comes from the Book of Revelation, a description of the end days where a single political, economic, and religious body rules the world. The coronavirus isn’t the first time conspiracy theorists believed the prediction was coming to fruition. After the TSA implemented more security in airports following 9/11, some believed the terrorists act was an inside job by global elites. Anyone who pays attention to the news can tell that there isn’t exactly a global elite rising out of this chaos.
TRUMP IS USING THE CORONAVIRUS TO SAVE CHILDREN OF DEVIL WORSHIPPERS
This theory could have remained floating in the sub-basement of the Internet. However, everyone’s home scrolling for more hours, so it ended up on the real internet. The theory goes, the coronavirus is a smokescreen allowing Trump to raid satanic baby-eating cults to rescue children. The theory came from the 4chan message board, QAnon, before distilling up to Facebook and Twitter.
Oprah trended on Twitter as people retweeted reports of her arrest for human trafficking. Oprah released a statement to say she was at home, “sanitizing and self distancing.”
BILL GATES WANTS TRACKING DEVICES IMPLANTED IN EVERYONE
The Microsoft mogul has been vocal about technology’s potential to help track and contain coronavirus outbreaks. Given Bill Gates’ dedicated work to help those less fortunate in the world, like establishing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, it’d be a genuine shock if it was all a ruse to help him establish world domination. The bogus theory claims that Gates wants the COVID-19 vaccine to contain a microchip capable of tracking, monitoring, and controlling recipients.
