TRUTH OR MYTH? FALLACIES ABOUT COVID-19

By Rommel K Manwong

Applied Criminology | Investigations

April 14, 2020

I think, this time, COVID-19 is not “Made in China”. It’s nothing but some kind of a Japanese made thing, known as Kuro-Kuro, also known as Haka-Haka.

The fact is, we know nothing! And knowing nothing, we are vulnerable to exploitation. The only antidote for ignorance is knowledge. We need to be educated. For education remains to be the most powerful cure of ignorance. In this digital age, man continues to be ignorant and vulnerably gullible. Human ignorance brought man to believe about anything viral online.

COVID-19 online viral exploitation is brought high by the left- and right-wing social media, drawing the whole current scenario to be scarier than the pandemic itself as it takes just about some kind of madness that has perpetrated across communities and around the globe. Media played well in triggering mass hysteria and Sinophobia.

The Comical Corona

When the World Health Organization elevated the health problem level from an outbreak to a pandemic, many people began to raise the alarm. The state of panic and fear blinded people not to consider official information and advisories. There was propagation of comical theories such as the following: that the coronavirus is a pharmaceutical promotion if not, it was just Netflix thing; that holding your breath for 10 seconds means you don’t have the virus; that a bottle of vodka was a better hand sanitizer than regular alcohol sanitizer; that eating banana or taking garlic can kill the virus; that drinking cow’s urine can cure COVID-19; that being under the sun or in hot/warm place is being far from virus infection; that a Russian lion is out the public for people to keep social distancing; that chewing Ifugao betel nut or “momma” could kill the virus; and so many memes and so on.

Military Espionage/ Biochemical Weaponry

Many lured about coronavirus as a military project for biochemical weaponry. That it was a product of espionage by some Chinese couple virologist and biologist, working with the Canadian government, who stole the deadly virus from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. Allegedly, the pathogen was later leaked at a Wuhan facility even prior to the outbreak. There were speculations that the Chinese military was behind this bio-weapon project. By the time news about the virus went high by global media, China was into covering up the outbreak as it tried to hide the official figures about deadly impact of the pandemic. And the fact that the Chinese Government repressed some Chinese whistle blowers who tried to warn the public about the pandemic, created further assumptions of a military operation.

Population Control Theories

Population control has been an order of business since the Ancient Greeks. Aristotle was a firm proponent of population control. The same course of thoughts comes from the Chinese as seen from the writings of Confucius about effective population control policies. By modern day, Bill Gates openly admitted the need to curb the population as it is necessary for the world’s stability. He pushed for human vaccination.

At the onset of the outbreak, some people began to think that it was part of the United Nations Agenda on world’s population control, taking into accounts the provisions of Agenda 21 (Chapter 5) vi's-à-vis Agenda 2030. Agenda 21 was a product of the Earth Summit held in Brazil in 1992 which provided an action plan with regard to sustainable development. It enumerates actions that would contribute to curbing the ever growing billion populations and to make the world under a balance state with its existing resources. Agenda 2030 is a road map that set sustainable future for everyone, set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015, and to be achieved by year 2030.

The 5G Claim

In the midst of the pandemic comes arrogance, boasting and self-aggrandizing behaviors. A few geeks and tech-savvy gained some footing and momentum when they took the claim that 5G technology is linked to COVID-19. United Kingdom and Europe was immediately hit by this disinformation campaign. Including celebrities promoting the idea, the geeks penetrated even the top tier of government. It seemed to be some kind of strategy modeled from Russia's Internet Research Agency, which was behind the disinformation campaign during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2016. Such misinformation opens the mind of the gullible to think that the pandemic is not as dangerous as a worldwide health crisis, thus people continue not to conform to government advisories. As far as the 5G claim is concerned, infodemics – a new kind of pandemic, gained unprecedented speed and velocity.

Eyes of Darkness and the Predictions

Disciples of Nostradamus claimed that the prophet has actually predicted the coronavirus situation. They based this from one of his writings which states that: “The great plague of the maritime city. Will not cease until there be avenged the death. Of the just blood, condemned for a price without crime.” (Century 2:53).

A scarier theory is that one written by Dean Koontz in 1981 in his book ‘The Eyes of Darkness’, which he mentioned a prediction about a Wuhan virus. In fact, a picture of the book went viral and true enough, netizens could not help but freak out. The story tells an outbreak in Wuhan known as ‘Wuhan 400’. The author elaborated details about how the virus can affect the human body, which with accuracy, predicted the outbreak and the resemblance between ‘Wuhan-400’ and the coronavirus – COVID-19.

Even the popular television show “The Simpsons” did not escape being taken out and flooded into the mainstream media for predicting several major cases around the world before they occurred. Shortly after the outbreak, allegations of the show predicting the pandemic surfaced.

The Blame Game

Now, finger pointing has once again into the hike. China and the United States economic power competition have shifted into the blame game over the pandemic issue. As the number of COVID-19 cases in the United States getting into uphill records and China has reportedly declined in numbers, the two world powers are kept into teething each over the bunk.

Then comes information warfare. China, Iran, and Russia are using the old ‘Cold War’ format of disinformation tactics by falsely promoting that the United States is to blame for the current COVID-19 pandemic. Top of the line propaganda campaigns between these countries are so evident from their respective horse's mouth. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have waged a disinformation campaign against the United States in an effort to distract from Beijing’s mishandling of the crisis. This includes a baseless claim that US brought the corona virus to Wuhan. United States on the other hand released strategic communication materials propagating that China is responsible for the pandemic and even haunting European communities. Iran aggressively promoting conspiracy theories that COVID-19 is a U.S. manufactured biological weapon, and Iran is a target. At the same time Iran pointed out that the US is weaponizing the crisis to benefit its pharmaceutical industry. Russia entered the same level of involvement when it leveraged itself from social media bots and troll farms to strengthen the Iranian allegations against the US.

Considering that people rarely verify information before they share it in social media, the upshot would be a devastating spread of fear and hopelessness. The people, not the government, suffers the most.

Think about it. If COVID-19 is not “Made in China”, then, what do you believe?

Stay safe and vigilant!