Refuting Some COVID19 Conspiracy Theories

 

By Yasser Harrak

There have been several misinformation campaigns about the coronavirus that based on conspiracy theories. Nowadays, one needs not only to listen to intelligent talk, but also in an unfortunate manner   to listen to and expose vacuous explanations of issues such as this global pandemic. Let's put some of the COVID19 conspiratorial suggestions under the microscope to test their validity.

THE WIRELESS 5G TECHNOLOGY

This theory suggests that the 5G network weakens the human immune system to a point where it can no longer fight the coronavirus. This is the most absurd suggestion a conspiracy theorist can come up with simply because the pandemic spread in places where the 5G has not yet been used. Let alone the recovery cases in 5G areas and the cases where infected individuals remain asymptomatic.

GOVERNMENTS AND SURVEILLANCE

This one suggests that ion the Post-COVID19 era, public health safety will be used to justify increased surveillance of the people's movement using the GPS tracking and /or face recognition technologies. Although it is true that China used the GPS to track sick individuals and individuals at risk using cell phone applications, presently as the number of infections tapers off, there is no indication that China is adopting such a practice as the country is gradually returning back to normal.

CASHLESS SOCIETY

In this theory, the COVID19 pandemic will be used to justify that financial transactions are not be conducted with money in the form of physical banknotes or coins because of the risk of transmitting disease. Thereof, all transactions will have to be digital using pay passes or cards. Consequently, governments will be able to eliminate the black market and trace all financial transactions. The problem with this theory is that it ignores the existence of many financial products such as prepaid cards, gift cards and bitcoin that can be used in a way that does not link directly to an identifiable person. I do not think governments would dare to create tendencies to anonymous precious metal trading which can be a blow to modern fiat currencies whose value is backed by the government that issues it and not by gold or the like.

CLIMATE CHANGE CONTROL

This one suggests that the pandemic used as an excuse to slow down world economic activity to reduce carbon emissions and give a break to the earth bio-diversity to regenerate. The flaws of this theory is that it talks about a break rather than a projected permanent new order or impact as we saw with the previous three theories. There are, however, no scientific studies suggesting that a break of a few months can slow down global warming. Governments, should that be the case, will have to come up with a new virus every year to scare the population into a lockdown. In addition, this theory contradicts the fact that there are climate change denial politicians supporting the lockdown.

Conspiracy theorists spread misinformation and tend to make money from that thanks to the large numbers of viewers, sharers and re-tweeters. Anyone who cares about public safety should think twice before participating indirectly in harming the public amidst this pandemic.