“Disease X”, what is the new conspiracy theory on social networks?

This conspiracy theory – about a hypothetical future pandemic – is used by disinformation purveyors to “sell products”, particularly medical emergency kits.

“Disease

According to AFP’s fact-checkers, fake news, particularly attributed to an elite conspiracy to create an unknown pathogen intended to depopulate the planet, appears to originate in the United States but has spread to Asia in several regional languages.

Four years after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, rapidly spreading misinformation, which experts say shows the dangers of poor content moderation on social media, could increase distrust in vaccines and undermine public health emergency preparedness.

By stoking fear about disease evidence.

“Disinformation mongers are trying to use this conspiracy theory to sell products,” Timothy Caulfield of the University of Alberta in Canada told AFP.

“It is often their main source of income. The conflict is deep. Without fear-mongering and evidence-based talk about vaccines and government conspiracies, there would be little or no profit,” he adds.

“Weapon of Genocide Death”

The World Economic Forum in Davos – which still spreads misinformation – after conspiracy theories proliferated – held a roundtable in January entitled “Preparing for Disease X”, which focused on possible future pandemics.

Alex Jones, the founder of Infowars, a site that has made millions of dollars spreading conspiracy theories about mass shootings and Covid-19, claimed on social media that there is a global plan to deploy Disease X as a “weapon of genocidal death”.

When the conspiracy spread in China, posts shared on TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) claimed that the Chinese government was setting up mobile crematoriums to deal with “mass deaths”.

But through a reverse image search, AFP fact-checkers discovered that the videos in these posts actually showed animal cremation services.

In October, AFP fact-checkers debunked online posts in Malaysia that claimed nurses were being forced to inject themselves with a vaccine against Disease X, which does not exist.

“A Medical Emergency Kit”

Peter McCullough, an American cardiologist known for spreading misinformation about Covid-19, claimed without evidence that Disease X “must be created in a biological laboratory”. He made the statement on the website of US-based dietary supplement supplier The Wellness Company, of which he is chief scientific officer.

People urged to “be prepared” for disease -19.

Gateway Pundit, a right-wing website known for spreading conspiracy theories, also published “Disease X: Are Globalists Planning Another Pandemic?” “Don’t be caught off guard,” said the message, which promoted the kits in a sponsored post titled Link to a link to order the kits.

“Spreading conspiracy theories to make money is a long-established practice on the right,” Julie Millican, vice president of left-wing media monitoring organization Media Matters, told AFP.

“They explained that there is a possibility of spreading conspiracy theories about topics such as disease. Neither the wellness company nor Gateway Pundit responded to AFP’s requests.

A lot of misinformation goes unchallenged, as platforms like X in search of savings have reduced the staff responsible for monitoring the security and reliability of their content.

Since Covid, “low acceptance” of vaccines.

The conspiracy theories draw on growing vaccine hesitancy since the Covid-19 pandemic, which has the potential to have “significant” public health implications, said Jennifer Reich, a sociologist at the University of Colorado Denver.

“Since Covid, we have seen less acceptance of vaccines for children and, in polls, a growing approval of the right to refuse to vaccinate your children,” Ms Reich told AFP.

Some followers of conspiracies born around the disease

“Misinformation can lead some segments of the population to take ineffective or harmful measures during an outbreak,” Chunhui Chi, a professor of global health at Oregon State University, told AFP.

“It can be a huge obstacle for a society that wants to be proactive in preventing and preparing for an emerging infectious disease,” he said.

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