Coronavirus Conspiracy Theories have been discarded by British and American Scientists

Coronavirus Conspiracy theories are flooding the internet. President Trump called it China virus or Wuhan virus at first in February 2020. Chinese retaliated that it was a job of US army, as a chemical biological warfare. Indian media is flooded with stories that China wants to conquer and dominate the world, so spread this virus, and think that China will tell the world that Chinese found the cure which it already had discovered before spreading the virus.

Some Chinese scientist had published a report in Nature, a highly respected US journal that proved that  “2019-nCoV is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus.”

Some 27 scientists from all over the world issued an appeal in the Lancet, again a well-regarded American medical journal assuring that the virus had come from bats. Bats must have infected animals in slaughter houses or where animals are raised on industrial level to process the meat.

“Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumors, and prejudice that jeopardize our global collaboration in the fight against this virus,” the scientists declared in one voice.

But world is suffering from the fragile nerves. Isolation and social distances has spiked human anxiety to exploding level. Conspiracy theories mislead people to engage in destructive and prejudiced behavior. Such behavior only freaks ordinary man more, make him feel helpless, and angry at totally unreasonable levels. Fear and anxiety are not helpful in survival.

Elizabeth Kubler. Ross who died in 2004, wrote an iconic book on grief and its resulting fear and anxiety. She described how a tragedy and mourning go through five stages of grief, starting from denial and anger to finally accepting it as a tragedy. Religion, any religion, plays a big role in knowing final stage of grief that is acceptance. Most Indians are still in the denial stage of grief from coronavirus.

Narendra Modi has done a great job for preparing India to face this tragedy like, by asking citizens to turn on a candle or diya and pray. This is a far superior way to calm the nerves of our 1.3 billion people than talking about conspiracy theory. Conspiracy ideas have no beginning or end. They run wild and destroy our cognitive ability to face a difficult and tragic situation. Let us prepare but also pray.