Plague Season: How Conspiracy Theories Are Derailing Public Health Efforts The current outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and hantavirus on a cruise ship have spawned an array of conspiracy theories, ranging from claims that these diseases are bioweapons designed to upend elections or push new vaccines to assertions that they are caused by Covid vaccines and Bill Gates' alleged plans for world domination.
Conspiracy theories around disease outbreaks are a persistent phenomenon that transcends ideological boundaries.
According to University of Miami associate professor Joseph Uscinski, "whatever the disease, people are going to say there's a conspiracy behind it or that it's not real and the vaccine is a scam.