Recently among the pandemic crisis, social media has turned to conspiracies creating a new issue that, according to the NY Times, Aleksandra Kuzmanovic of the World Health Organization(WHO) and her colleagues are referring to as an "Infodemic."
As many journalists speculate this term, others turn to the media, spreading awareness on conspiracy theories floating around the virus through social media.
According to an article written by Yahoo editor David Knowles, some of these conspiracies include:
- -Bill Gates is using the coronavirus to seize control over healthcare
- -5G Cell Phone Towers cause COVID-19
- -U.S. Soldiers introduced the coronavirus to China
Along with many others that not only feed into rumors and disinformation about what President Trump has called the 'invisible enemy.'
Gates, who spends approximately $3 billion a year to boost public health in disadvantaged countries, has been attacked in the media for the falsehood that he created the virus with the intention to profit from it.
Falsely portrayed as the creator and profiteer of the coronavirus with an evil scheme to cull and surveil the population.
There are many being accused and there's a lot of finger-pointing. Everybody just creates their own story for the media, when it's very likely that no one really knows the truth about the origin of the virus, and we're becoming paranoid from what we're seeing and hearing as a result of the uneasy sociopolitical state the world was in before the virus became a thing.
The precautions being taken by the government may seem extreme, but so is the nature of the virus; being that it has so much flexibility in how it spreads, as well as how it takes effect on people.
It's important to let things unfold until the situation takes its course and people have their say on how to resolve the issue.
Through communicating and cooperating with one another, it's inevitable that the world will get through this. The people of society need to focus on avoiding any radical turns for worse during these stressful times.
