IF you believe coronavirus is a conspiracy...

[OutComeTheWolves]

... do you believe Boris is in on it?

I've read and heard a few people saying the it's a conspiracy to use fear to remove a lot of our freedoms in one fell swoop. But, unless he's a very good actor, Boris Johnson seems to be actually really reluctant to remove our individual liberties. So I was just wondering what people thought?

As a disclaimer I should add that I don't think it is part of a huge plan to do this, but I could maybe believe that it was an accidental leak from a lab or something. I think when something like this happens it's human nature to look for reasons why it happened because the thought that a random quirk of nature could cause these problems worldwide is terrifying.

[blackcat86]

I'm not usually a fan of conspiracy theories but couldn't help the think the other day of all the positive environmental impacts. People weren't making big enough changes to save the planet and now suddenly we're all staying home, not driving or flying, closing shopping centres etc. Im not sure whether it's a conspiracy theory as much as an observation on behaviour.

[SophocIestheFox]

Place marking as I could really use a laugh, and this is entertainingly barking.

[YesIReallyDoLikeRootBeer]

@MrsSnitchnose you saying you are not sure about Trump being in on a conspiracy theory makes me laugh. He's far too stupid, and talks way too much to keep something like that a secret.

[happiness1212121]

I find it strange that Russia doesn't seem to have many reported cases.

[FourDecades]

Batteries in birds? I've been around many years on MN but haven't come across that one before.

What does it imply?

[LittleLittleLittle]

@happiness1212121 Putin was seen out in public a few weeks ago with a doctor who was found to have it.

I'm waiting for that doctor to have a heart attack and die just like those involved in the Russian sports doping scandal

[kingis]

@thegingenie
Yes, relatively harmless because children seem to be ok with it. An experiment involving kids would be unethical.

[WomanIsTaken]

David Icke has been around for years, sure, but he has been getting millions of views on YouTube just in the last few days for tying together wisps of disparate 'facts' in a really plausible way. It's like reading the bloody DaVinci Code, it only hangs together if you go along with the argument from DI's initial entry-point and suspend disbelief; if you dip into his argument midway through not having 'agreed' to a host of previous extrapolations, it is just nonsense. He's also a huge and outspoken climate change denier, which I personally feel speaks volumes.
Iwannabeadored, Bill Gates is being pulled to shreds over the Gates Foundation's work on vaccines (they make vaccines for preventable diseases available in countries and communities where there is little access to these) and is seen as advocating a policy of mandatory vaccinations, that will implant nanobots into the world's population to enable totalitarian control by a kabal of hidden elites (David Icke is totally on board with this, by the way). Bill Gates is also vilified on account of his father being on the board of the US' Planned Parenthood which promotes women's reproductive health and access to safe abortions. The religious right have called him a eugenicist because of this, and this is used to discredit BG.

[cushioncovers]

If I believe in any conspiracy theory it's that China released the virus knowing it would spread and decimate America's economy leaving China as the ultimate super power.

[WomanIsTaken]

Those italics (in a really plausible way) should have had a afterwards.

[hepburnmed]

Place marking for giggles

[TheGinGenie]

@kingis Your answer makes absolutely no sense. It's not harmful because kids come off better? Fuck the rest of us then. Do you also think cancer is "relatively harmless" as it tends to affect adults more too? Heart attacks?

[TheGinGenie]

To be fair conspiracy theories don't ever make any sense so I shouldn't be surprised

[TheoriginalLEM]

@thegingenie I think king is was being ironic

[EthelMayFergus]

I love reading about conspiracy theories but I don't believe them. I'm particularly intrigued by the idea that Chinese people (who are Asian) have deliberately developed and unleashed a virus that harms Asian people more than white people? That makes no sense.

[user1495884620]

With regard to the BAME medics, it would be interesting to see the percentages of BAME NHS doctors by age. Off the top of my head, I think previous threads have quoted roughly 40% of doctors are BAME but I have seen a few threads saying that Asian doctors tend to retire later so I wonder if the percentage of BAME doctors in the 60+ age range is considerably higher.

[MiddlesexGirl]

I feel like I am going to burst with frustration that my ordinarily perfectly reasonable friends are disappearing down this particular rabbit hole.

Agreed. Although amongst my friends there is a strong correlation with those who refuse(d) to get their children vaccinated so at least I had prior warning 🙄

[Iwannabeadored20]

Thanks @WomanisTaken

Very cogent

[BunnytheBee]

This is effecting BAME people more for socio-economic reasons, especially in London. A lot of the lower paid front line jobs where people can't work from home have a higher proportion of BAME workers.

This shouldn’t apply to the medical professionals should it? There shouldn’t be a higher proportion of BAME doctors dying unless there is an inherently higher proportion of BAME workers in those roles but I’m not sure where those figures are.

GMC or similar might publish them 🤷🏻‍♀️

[BovaryX]

There are some useful idiots on this thread doing everything to distract from the facts about this virus. It emerged in November in Wuhan. On December 30th Dr. Li Wenliang tried to warn colleagues about the novel virus. He was forced to confess to illegal behaviour and subsequently died. China did not lockdown until January 23rd Between November and January, international travel from China continued as usual. That coincided with peak ski season in Europe. Now? This is a global health emergency which has put the planet on house arrest and is filling body bags from Ecuador to Estoril. Its origins and evolution from a regional to global crisis will be analysed.

[BovaryX]

www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/world/asia/china-coronavirus.html

[LastTrainEast]

CocoCorona "Diseases are indiscriminate" That is simply not true. It's well known that ethnic groups can share vulnerabilities and other diseases affect children differently to adults. Diabetics are vulnerable to some and asthmatics to others. Every time someone is exposed to a disease 100s of factors come into play.

[esjee]

Another really unhelpful thread that allows dangerous idiots to spread their conspiracy theories. Why does mumsnet not delete this shit?

[LastTrainEast]

"but I do believe that Johnson is in on crashing the UK out of the EU." we're already leaving the EU. Hadn't you heard? There was a referendum and at least one thread on MN :)

[CocoCorona]

By diseases I meant viruses like a common cold, flu, herpes, TB, chicken pox, SARS and MERS that are passed on from human to human.

Please don’t be patronising and tell me some diseases are more prevalent in certain races. The diseases prevalent in certain races are genetically there. Africans will have thalassemia from birth as it is an inherited blood disorder. South Asians will have a pre-disposition to T1 diabetes if their parents have it.

I agree about the lab in Wuhan being suspicious. There was definitely some kind of testing going on. Seems odd that Chinese have been eating bats and pangolins for I assume centuries, yet this happens now? The odds of something like this happening are very low.