I personally don't believe in
germ-based contagion.
A disturbing conspiracy theory has
been brewing for months that rejects
the existence of COVID-19
altogether.
The
Economist in March, found that 13
percent of Americans believed the
COVID-19 crisis was a hoax.
Conspiracy theorists using hashtags
like filmyourhospital are pushing
people to visit their local
hospitals and prove that there are
no patients with coronavirus.
The
logic is if hospitals appear quiet,
it's confirmation that the pandemic
is not real.
A doctor at Cleveland's University
Hospital in the U.S.
treated a patient infected with
coronavirus who refused to believe
the virus was real.
Ryan Marino, an emergency physician,
said the patient accused him of
falsifying the test results.
Closer to home, hundreds of
anti-vaccination protesters rallied
in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane,
claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was
a scam.
And in Brazil, nurses are concerned
residents don't believe coronavirus
exists.
The fear and confusion caused
by the pandemic creates an
environment that's ripe for
conspiracy theories to flourish.
And some people are more susceptible
to believing them than others.
There's a lot of psychological
research behind why people
find the simplicity
of conspiratorial narratives
appealing. It's the idea that
someone somewhere is
maliciously pulling the strings.
Right. So the world is not out of
your control if someone somewhere
is deliberately doing these things
to hurt you.
