Ever since the coronavirus originated in Wuhan, and spread across the globe, false claims, conspiracy theories and misinformation have been doing the rounds on online platforms, and sometimes even on mainstream media. Misplaced attitudes, for instance about masks, medicines, vaccines etc., have done more harm in dealing with the health crisis by transforming the epidemic into an infodemic.
United States for Medical Freedom has been at the forefront of creating a network of online groups which have frequently posted about opposition to vaccines. Misinformation about vaccines and calls to action against vaccination policies have been their key agenda. Having thousands of followers each, a network of 17 groups have been using the social media platform to advance the propaganda against coronavirus.
Along with this group affiliated with Medical Freedom, there are additional groups representing different states in a network with thousands of followers while 18 groups were especially made against vaccines. Some have made the bizarre claim that the vaccine is in fact a chip which will be injected in everyone so that governments could track and trace their every movement. Furthermore, using this sinister network, United States for Medical Freedom has been highlighting the misinformation to common people who have been ignoring warnings from healthcare professionals about the perilous effects of such malicious attempts.
There are several egregious examples of how this network has been circulating false information making people reckless and consequently increasing the COVID-19 cases. For example, one of the administrators claimed that COVID-19 was no different from flu and wearing masks won’t help in its containment. When the first cases of COVID-19 emerged in the United States at the end of January, posts hinting at a conspiracy theory blaming Bill Gates abounded and attempted to discredit National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
when people took to streets to protest against lockdowns, the network actively supported their calls. Even those protesting people were in denial of any pandemic and amplified conspiracy theories blaming China for “spreading the disease” and Media “for reporting it”. In another example of how these groups spread misinformation, a video was shared across this network debunking medical research and seriousness of pandemic. Over 9 million people viewed the video on YouTube, let alone other video platforms.
The network has become a hotbed for misinformation and forcing people make irrational decisions that could threaten not their own lives but of those around. According to MediaMatters.org, following are some of the false outrageous claims. Nayadaur has attempted to debunk each claim using evidence and updated research available from credible sources. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that many conspiracy theories are based on fallacies like slippery slope and bandwagon effect. Secondly, it is easy to confuse correlation with causation as the former merely suggests some form of association that may or may not be statistically significant.
United States for Medical Freedom has been at the forefront of creating a network of online groups which have frequently posted about opposition to vaccines. Misinformation about vaccines and calls to action against vaccination policies have been their key agenda. Having thousands of followers each, a network of 17 groups have been using the social media platform to advance the propaganda against coronavirus.
Along with this group affiliated with Medical Freedom, there are additional groups representing different states in a network with thousands of followers while 18 groups were especially made against vaccines. Some have made the bizarre claim that the vaccine is in fact a chip which will be injected in everyone so that governments could track and trace their every movement. Furthermore, using this sinister network, United States for Medical Freedom has been highlighting the misinformation to common people who have been ignoring warnings from healthcare professionals about the perilous effects of such malicious attempts.
There are several egregious examples of how this network has been circulating false information making people reckless and consequently increasing the COVID-19 cases. For example, one of the administrators claimed that COVID-19 was no different from flu and wearing masks won’t help in its containment. When the first cases of COVID-19 emerged in the United States at the end of January, posts hinting at a conspiracy theory blaming Bill Gates abounded and attempted to discredit National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci.
when people took to streets to protest against lockdowns, the network actively supported their calls. Even those protesting people were in denial of any pandemic and amplified conspiracy theories blaming China for “spreading the disease” and Media “for reporting it”. In another example of how these groups spread misinformation, a video was shared across this network debunking medical research and seriousness of pandemic. Over 9 million people viewed the video on YouTube, let alone other video platforms.
The network has become a hotbed for misinformation and forcing people make irrational decisions that could threaten not their own lives but of those around. According to MediaMatters.org, following are some of the false outrageous claims. Nayadaur has attempted to debunk each claim using evidence and updated research available from credible sources. Meanwhile, it is worth mentioning that many conspiracy theories are based on fallacies like slippery slope and bandwagon effect. Secondly, it is easy to confuse correlation with causation as the former merely suggests some form of association that may or may not be statistically significant.
- The coronavirus is actually a bioweapon. There is a lot of scholarly evidence to suggest that coronavirus was not manufactured in the laboratory. The most compelling reason to believe that coronavirus is not human-made is that the recent coronavirus closely resembles two other viruses that triggered outbreaks in recent decades, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. A senior fellow for Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations Yanzhong Huang wrote an article for Foreign Affairs that is dismissive of such conspiracy theories. Saying that coronavirus was Chinese sinister attempt to bring the world to its knees and change the global order to its favour is outrageously fallacious statement disproved by the cases and fatalities around the globe including in China and its allied countries. Would that be in China's interest? COVID-19 is a calamity, a crisis, a test for humanity rather than a weapon to be used as a means to "occupy the world".
- 5G technology causes COVID-19. Scientific community has called out such notions as "complete rubbish," as reiterated by Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology. Another variation of the conspiracy theory asserts that radiation from 5G can weaken your immune system. There is no scientific evidence that 5G towers are causing COVID-19 symptoms or that 5G radiation is making people more susceptible to SARS-CoV2 infections. COVID-19 has a clear cause, a new coronavirus.
- The pandemic was planned to create a global surveillance state with 5G technology. The roots of this conspiracy lie in government attempts at contact tracing to track and nip the spread of coronavirus. However, conspiracy theorists distorted this as a measure which had been "pre-planned". Such monitoring is out of the question in liberal democracies.
- Governments are using the virus as an excuse for mass surveillance. Some level of surveillance is necessary to enforce quarantine. Take for instance the cases where people escaped the quarantine centres even though they had been tested positive for COVID-19. Part of local transmission is attributed to such non-serious attitude of people "disliking" state surveillance but ignoring the necessary of public safety over privacy. There have been claims that coronavirus would be used as an excuse, a pretext to broaden surveillance. It’s a complex trade-off: Governments need information to create containment strategies and know where to focus resources. The most common form of surveillance implemented to battle the pandemic is the use of smartphone location data, which can track population-level movement down to enforcing individual quarantines.
- Bill Gates planned the pandemic for population control and to force a vaccine on people. Gates said in 2015 that the world was not prepared for an epidemic, and urged: "We need to get going. Because time is not on our side." He pointed out an irony that armies could be mobilized at moment's notice but we do not have yet capacity to deal with a health crisis like a virus which could be far more deadly and world should gear its efforts towards preparedness to contain such situation.
- The pandemic was planned by the ‘deep state' as part of the QAnon conspiracy theory. QAnon is a right-wing conspiracy theory that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals. Thankfully, a week ago Facebook removed all accounts linked to this sinister theory. "Facebook says it found the QAnon activity as part of its investigations into suspected coordinated inauthentic behavior ahead of the 2020 presidential election."
- The pandemic was planned by Gates to implant people with microchips. On the contrary, he responded: "The TED talk I did in 2015 talked about this. We need to have the ability to scale up diagnostics, drugs and vaccines very rapidly. The technologies exist to do this well if the right investments are made. If anything kills over 10 million people over the next few decades, it's most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes. We've invested a huge amount in nuclear deterrents, but we've invested very little in a system to stop epidemics. We are not ready for the next epidemic," he warned.
- The flu vaccine increases the odds of people getting COVID-19. The study often cited by claimants of such does not pass through the scientific test i.e. being verifiable or repeatable. This was also debunked by researchers and health professionals as they did not find any causation link between the two or the very least, a statistically significant correlation.
