There have been many conspiracies regarding COVID-19 in the last couple of years. Conspiracies like what it is, how it came to be, or who made it. When COVID-19 was first introduced to the public it wasn’t that big of a deal, but as time went on the panic ensued. People started to make conspiracy theories about COVID-19, some say it was made in a lab, and others say that the government was the one who intentionally spread it. Then later on, when the vaccine came out, people made even more conspiracies about it, claiming that it has a chip in it to track you or even that it will transform you into a zombie. In this article, I will prove to you that the conspiracies surrounding COVID-19 are false.
COVID-19 is a well-known virus since it has affected many people’s daily routines for the past 2 years. It is a fast-spreading deadly disease that could kill if you are not precautionary about it. It has infected millions of people since it first started and even for those who have not contracted it, it still impacted the way many people live. The first known case of COVID-19 was in Wuhan, China and it spread through China and people who were traveling. It spread from China to the entire world in a couple of months. People were getting sick from left to right. Now that you know the basic information about COVID-19, I’ll get started with the conspiracies.
One of the most popular conspiracies about COVID-19 is that it was made in a laboratory in Wuhan and that it got leaked to the public. I’ll tell you right now that this is false, but if you don’t believe me, here is some proof. Yes, Wuhan has a laboratory where researchers have been studying coronaviruses for a long time, but it wasn’t this COVID-19. This is an article from allianceforscience.cornell.edu where one researcher talks about COVID-19 not being from their lab “She admits breathing a ‘sigh of relief’ when genetic sequencing showed that the new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus did not match any of the viruses sampled and studied in the Wuhan Institute of Virology by her team.” You might see that they used coronavirus, but coronavirus is a general term used to describe RNA viruses that cause a variety of respiratory, gastrointestinal, and neurological diseases in humans and other animals.
Now, I will talk about a conspiracy theory regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. One of the many theories regarding the vaccine is that the government could track you with a chip that they put in the vaccine. However, a chip that could track you and have a source to power it wouldn’t be possible to go inside your body. Also, the vaccine is put into your bloodstream, so if a chip got into there that would cause blood to stop flowing, which could lead to death. Here is some evidence from CNBC further proving why there is no chip.“ ‘That’s just not possible as far as the size that would be required for that microchip,’ said Dr. Matt Laurens, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine…‘Second, that microchip would have to have an associated power source, and then, in addition, that power source would have to transmit a signal through at least an inch of muscle and fat and skin to a remote device, which again, just doesn’t make sense.’ ”
Many people die from this misinformation every day, like this 75-year-old woman who could’ve gotten the vaccine and had a higher chance of survival. NPR states, “Stephanie had become embroiled in conspiracy theories. Her belief in those far-out ideas caused her to avoid vaccination and led her to delay and even refuse some of the most effective treatments after she got sick.” Also, NPR says, “In Tennessee, 11,047 of the people who died could have survived if everyone in the state had gotten vaccinated. In Ohio, that number is 15,875. Nationally, it’s nearly 319,000, according to a new estimate.”
These are some of the many reasons why these COVID-19 conspiracy theories are false. These theories are misleading and only cause people to panic and not get the vaccine, which is important to get so you have a higher chance of survival. If you still haven’t changed your mind, then you could be in a higher danger than someone who doesn’t believe in these conspiracies.
Arnold Contreras
University of Chicago Lab School – DMSF Class of 2026
Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash