Medical personnel in protective suits prepare traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for patients of the novel coronavirus with an intelligent dispensing equipment at a pharmacy of Wuhan Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, in Hubei province, China March 2, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.
Don't you just love conspiracy theories? They persist for a long time even though there is evidence to support them. They are a product of different thinking patterns of people that are known to be unreliable for tracking reality.
Conspiracy theories can damage society in so many ways anyone can imagine. They can be construed for strategic and political intentions to harm the rival country. It may be set up as a rhetorical means to avoid conclusions that are inconvenient.
Although there are conspiracy theories that are true, the traits of conspiratorial thinking are not a productive way to solve real conspiracies. But rather, the ingredients for uncovering conspiracy theories should be the conventional way of thinking that values healthy skepticism, evidence, and consistency.
The issue on the coronavirus has created a number of conspiracy theories that people have a hard time identifying which one is true and which one is not. Nonetheless, it has recently been debunked by experts from the UK.
Coronavirus Is NOT a Bioweapon
The theory that the coronavirus was made in a laboratory is said to be 'improbable' according to leading researchers.
US politicians have accused the Chinese government of orchestrating the pandemic that has affected lots of countries and their economies. Senator Tom Cotton on January 31 said on his Twitter account that the coronavirus was from a Chinese laboratory that has escaped and President Xi Jin Ping knows the effects of the virus and what it can do.
He further claims that a biological expert was dispatched in Wuhan to contain the virus. His statement ended by saying that the laboratory animals used during their experiments are being sold to live markets and street vendors. He concluded by stating that scientists who sell these types of animals make lots of money.
On the other hand, China also did the same thing except that they believe the coronavirus actually came from the U.S.
Spokesperson and Deputy Director General, Zhao Lijian of China's Information Department for Foreign Ministry also implied that it was the U.S. that spread the disease in his three-part tweets.
Back and forth the two countries have accused each other of starting this pandemic, but scientists have debunked these claims.
Debunking COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories
Studies conducted on the virus' genetic data found that there are no signs of any previously used virus backbone, according to a researcher and author of Nature Medicine, Kristian Anderson.
This means that COVID-19's origin is through a natural process debunking earlier claims from conspiracy theories around. The team of scientists concludes that the type of laboratory-based scenario is not plausible.
This report from UK scientists suggests the first human to contact the virus may have come from a bat or a pangolin. This goes to suggest that the ongoing surveillance of pneumonia is clearly of utmost importance than these conspiracies.
The finding from the genetic analyses are consistent with how COVID-19 is behaving right now- it is not acting like a bioweapon. If it is, then it should be able to kill at a much higher rate and can be readily transported and released.
The person who decided to develop this virus as a bioweapon should already consider finding a new job because no one wanted a bioweapon to only kill 1% to 3.4% of the people it infects.
