On May 25, 2020, the portal Infomax.mk published an article titled: China reveals where and how coronavirus originated: The planet is in a state of shock.
It’s actually a clickbait, with content of Chinese conspiracy theories.
The title is sensational and “shocking”, but the “claim” about where and how the coronavirus originated cannot be concluded from the content of the article, much less about how the planet is in shock.
Original title: China reveals where and how coronavirus originated: The planet is in a state of shock
The portal in the article refers to Slobodna Dalmacija, but in the Croatian portal the headline of this news reads: China retaliates, releases its own conspiracy theory on the spread of the pandemic, the virus did not arrive in America from Wuhan, but was “produced” in Maryland!
Namely, the first part of the article writes about the alleged diplomatic games of China during the pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic China opposed the global investigation about the origins of the coronavirus and the resolution of WHO, then the situation became unexpectedly conciliatory and China expressed the will to support a global investigation about the origin of the virus, but only after the pandemic ends. It also cites CNN’s writing on how possible it is to conduct an objective and impartial investigation without affecting China’s investigative team and China’s position on the pandemic as a result of global outrage over Beijing’s silence on what the Chinese president said.
One goes through nearly half of the article and no alleged discovery is being mentioned, which readers are logically expecting from the title itself.
The second part of the article continues with the Chinese conspiracy theories.
According to one of them, the American coronavirus epidemic originated from a leak in the US military laboratory Fort Detrick.
It is not true that the virus originated in a laboratory in the United States. The assumptions were made in the Chinese Communist Party’s Qstheory magazine, and the author quoted parts of a report claiming that the coronavirus did not originate in the city of Wuhan, but probably in a laboratory in Maryland. China’s Qstheory magazine claims that the US Institute for Infectious Diseases Research was in Fort Detrick until last year and closed in August 2019 after allegedly failing to comply with safety regulations.
But the New York Times wrote that the facility in Fort Detrick was not closed, but only interrupted the investigation, and spokeswoman Caree Vander Linden said that there were no leaks of hazardous material outside the laboratory.
Another variation, on the Chinese conspiracy theory of the coronavirus discussed in the article, is that US military personnel from Fort Detrick actually imported the coronavirus into Wuhan last October during the World War II Games. But there is no evidence for these assumptions. Namely, the Pentagon sent 17 teams to these games with more than 280 athletes and other members, before any epidemic appeared.
The coronavirus, according to all records, originates from Wuhan, China. Scientists have not yet identified the “patient zero” or the exact source of the virus, although preliminary studies have linked the virus to bats.
According to the abovementioned, science does not support this narrative of Chinese conspiracy theories. Analysis of the virus’s genome suggests that the virus was not caused by a laboratory virus and was probably caused by wildlife.
Although the title of the article alludes to the “shocking” revelations about where and how the coronavirus originated, the article does not reveal anything that has not been “heard” so far.
Namely, these conspiracy theories by China are already known to the public. The essence of the text comes down to China’s “games and politics” about the state of the coronavirus, about the current Chinese conspiracy theories.
By transmitting this “information”, readers are misled. Although unfounded and unconfirmed, they “give strength” to conspiracy theories.
At this time when the media space is flooded with all sorts of conspiracy theories, let’s be conscientious and not let fake news affect us.
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This project was funded in part through a U.S. Embassy grant. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the implementers/authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Government.
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