I smell a Covid-19 conspiracy theory rat

Collecting stamps or doing ballroom dancing has never tickled my fancy. In fact, I’m not a hobby person at all.

But if there’s one thing I don’t mind spending hours on, it’s conspiracy theories – of any kind.

Maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that I was one year old when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin supposedly walked on the moon.

Or perhaps my grandpa’s photo album from World War II, with black-and-white pictures he took of those fantastical, giant structures most probably built by aliens up in Egypt.

For conspiracy theorists like me, the internet and social media was like a godsend.

Suddenly every questionable death or scientific discovery was a proven government cover-up, medical experiment gone wrong or a small incident in the complex web of global social engineering by the illuminati or some other secret organisation to keep the proletariat in place.

Malaysia flight MH370, 9/11, and Deepwater Horizon – the oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico – have all been the subject of multiple conspiracy theories.

The recent outbreak of the coronavirus has already seen its fair share of conspiracy theories.

US Congressional hopeful Joanne Wright, for example, tweeted that the coronavirus was “man-made” and implicated Pope Francis, Hillary Clinton and others in the spread of the virus, while Bill Gates was one of the financiers of the lab where it was developed. That’s how the Los Angeles Times reported on her tweets.

Other theories propose that the virus is actually a bio-weapon engineered by the CIA as a way to wage war on China, or alternatively that it was introduced by the UK government to make money from a potential vaccine.

Now there’s even conspiracy theories about the conspiracy theories, with Russia denying allegations that it is spreading disinformation about the outbreak. This came after US officials said Russian-linked accounts were making unfounded claims that America started the outbreak.

As a self-confessed conspiracy theorist, I must admit even I find all these theories beyond absurd.

So, as far as the coronavirus is concerned, I think I’ll sit this one out.

Danie Toerien.

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