If there's anything that's spreading faster than COVID-19 is spreading across the globe, it's rumors and misinformation about the virus.
You may have heard any number of things about the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China by now, but odds are that only a fraction of that information is actually accurate. Here are the craziest, falsest, and just plain funniest coronavirus conspiracy theories.
Cocaine cures coronavirus
Thanks to a series of viral online posts, many French citizens apparently genuinely believed that snorting cocaine could cure them of COVID-19, forcing the French department of health to post an official notice stating that cocaine does not, in fact, cure anything.
Coronavirus is activated by 5G networks
In the deep, dark wells of the Internet, a theory has emerged that claims the Chinese were given a mandatory vaccine last year that contained the coronavirus, which was then "activated" by 5G services in the country. At least Trump's space force is poised to step in.
Bill Gates invented the coronavirus
It's actually admirable that this list somehow manages to get crazier as it progresses despite starting with an assertion that Harvard and Bill Gates "weakened the sun". But seriously, people actually think Bill Gates is responsible for the virus.
The coronavirus was patented in 2015
The patent referenced here was for a much weaker version of a coronavirus to be used as a vaccine on birds and other animals, and it has nothing to do with the current pandemic affecting humans. As Dr. Erica Bickerton, who studies avian pathology for Pirbright, told BuzzFeed News, "The name coronavirus is a whole family of viruses," she said. "Each of these viruses has their own characteristics."
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American Democrats are responsible for the virus' spread to America
Donald Trump Jr. recently went on Fox and Friends and said, "For [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people, so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning, is a new level of sickness," he said. "You know, I don't know if this is coronavirus or Trump derangement syndrome, but these people are infected badly." The President has jumped aboard his son's disinformation campaign, repeatedly conjecturing that the virus is a hoax by the Democrats to oust him from office.
The coronavirus was created in a lab in Wuhan
This particular theory has been shared widely across the Internet, and despite being utter nonsense, Republican Congressman Tom Cotton even espoused it on live television. As the Telegraph points out, "The coronavirus is just another zoonotic infection - a virus that jumped from animals to humans. The Spanish flu, HIV and Ebola are others."
Eating garlic can protect you from the coronavirus
It's unclear where this one originated, but the WHO has been clear that "no evidence from the current outbreak that eating garlic has protected people from the new coronavirus."
Drinking bleach can protect you from the coronavirus
Don't drink bleach. Just don't ever drink bleach, even if someone is calling said bleach a "Miracle Mineral Solution." According to the Daily Beast, a "promoters of the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory were urging their fans to ward off the illness by purchasing and drinking dangerous bleach. The substance—dubbed 'Miracle Mineral Solution' or 'MMS'—has long been promoted by fringe groups as a combination miracle cure and vaccine for everything from autism to cancer and HIV/AIDS."
