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Author Topic: 3/16/2020  (Read 5732 times)

FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #60 on: March 16, 2020, 10:37:32 AM »

The end is already in sight.

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-2-03-15-20-intl-hnk/h_00633a0135cea337eda02ce7e6c854e3?fbclid=IwAR1Ggv2Dsbr4BXmpUjj_z_5fG-2J2Az4UqWCWAnqUdPhfPFtGUKzbmOFuGg
but that's CNN. I wouldn't believe anything they said if my life depended on it.
Then by all means, listen to Fox News, which is telling you this is a liberal hoax, and you should continue to go out, shake hands and be around lots of people. Then your life will REALLY depend on it.
🤣 I watch Robin Meade on HLN, my local news channel, and read various feeds. my life does not depend on what anyone one else thinks.
I wonder how many people in Italy said that over the last two weeks.
Guardo Robin Meade su HLN, il mio canale di notizie locale, e leggo vari feed. la mia vita non dipende da ciò che pensa qualcun altro.

let's see how many Italians read this.
All we know for sure is there are 1800 less of them to potentially read it than there were a couple weeks ago.
if Mussolini were still alive Italy would be at war with China.
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LuvTooGolf

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #61 on: March 16, 2020, 10:40:35 AM »

The end is already in sight.

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-2-03-15-20-intl-hnk/h_00633a0135cea337eda02ce7e6c854e3?fbclid=IwAR1Ggv2Dsbr4BXmpUjj_z_5fG-2J2Az4UqWCWAnqUdPhfPFtGUKzbmOFuGg
but that's CNN. I wouldn't believe anything they said if my life depended on it.
Then by all means, listen to Fox News, which is telling you this is a liberal hoax, and you should continue to go out, shake hands and be around lots of people. Then your life will REALLY depend on it.
🤣 I watch Robin Meade on HLN, my local news channel, and read various feeds. my life does not depend on what anyone one else thinks.
I wonder how many people in Italy said that over the last two weeks.
Guardo Robin Meade su HLN, il mio canale di notizie locale, e leggo vari feed. la mia vita non dipende da ciò che pensa qualcun altro.

let's see how many Italians read this.
All we know for sure is there are 1800 less of them to potentially read it than there were a couple weeks ago.
if Mussolini were still alive Italy would be at war with China.
I don't know, hard to see anyone taking orders from someone who's 137 years old. :D
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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #62 on: March 16, 2020, 10:41:06 AM »

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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #63 on: March 16, 2020, 10:42:31 AM »

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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #64 on: March 16, 2020, 10:43:54 AM »

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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #65 on: March 16, 2020, 10:45:11 AM »

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Travellin Dave

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #66 on: March 16, 2020, 10:57:19 AM »

Didn't take long for trading to get halted.
once the market tanks and the working class no longer has funds to invest, guess who will be buying up all the stocks?
The Chinese!  Ah, the endgame of the conspiracy reveals itself.
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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #67 on: March 16, 2020, 10:57:59 AM »

it's a great morning now. I ❤ Mondays.
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LuvTooGolf

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #68 on: March 16, 2020, 10:58:55 AM »

it's a great morning now. I ❤ Mondays.
I appreciate the guidepost. By Thursday morning, I will have absolutely no idea what day it is.
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Travellin Dave

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #69 on: March 16, 2020, 11:00:39 AM »

it's a great morning now. I ❤ Mondays.
I appreciate the guidepost. By Thursday morning, I will have absolutely no idea what day it is.
Definitely dont like that feeling.
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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #70 on: March 16, 2020, 11:01:49 AM »

Conspiracy theories

Chinese biological weapon
Further information: Cyberwarfare in the United States and Propaganda in the United States
In January 2020, the BBC published an article about coronavirus misinformation, citing two 24 January articles from The Washington Times which claimed the virus was part of a Chinese biological weapons program, based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).[1][13] The Washington Post later published an article debunking the conspiracy theory, citing US experts who explained why the institute was not suitable for bioweapon research, that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and that there was no evidence that the virus was genetically engineered.[14]

In February 2020, US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) as well as Francis Boyle, a law professor, suggested that the virus may have been a Chinese bioweapon,[15] while in the opinion of numerous medical experts there is no evidence for this.[16] Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh said on The Rush Limbaugh Show, the most popular radio show in the US, that the virus was probably "a ChiCom laboratory experiment" and that the Chinese were using the virus and the media hysteria surrounding it, to bring down Donald Trump.[17][18] In February 2020, The Financial Times reported from virus expert and global co-lead coronavirus investigator, Trevor Bedford, who said that "There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find", and that, "The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution".[19] Bedford further explained, "The most likely scenario, based on genetic analysis, was that the virus was transmitted by a bat to another mammal between 20–70 years ago. This intermediary animal—not yet identified—passed it on to its first human host in the city of Wuhan in late November or early December 2019".[19]

On 29 January, financial news website and blog ZeroHedge suggested, without evidence, that a scientist at the WIV created the COVID-19 strain responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. Zerohedge listed the full contact details of the scientist supposedly responsible, a practice known as doxing, by including the scientist's name, photo and phone number, suggesting to readers that they "pay [the Chinese scientist] a visit" if they wanted to know "what really caused the coronavirus pandemic".[20] Twitter later permanently suspended the blog's account for violating its platform manipulation policy.[21]

In January 2020, Buzzfeed News also reported on an internet meme/conspiracy theory of a link between the logo of the WIV and "Umbrella Corporation", the agency that made the virus that starts the zombie apocalypse in the Resident Evil franchise. The theory also saw a link between "Racoon" (the main city in Resident Evil), and an anagram of "Corona" (the name of the virus).[22] The popularity of this theory attracted the attention of Snopes, who proved it as false showing that the logo was not from the Institute, but from Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Limited, located approximately 500 miles (800 km) away in Shanghai and additionally pointed out that the proper name of the city in Resident Evil is Raccoon City.[22]

The Inverse reported that "Christopher Bouzy, the founder of Bot Sentinel, did a Twitter analysis for Inverse and found [online] bots and trollbots are making an array of false claims. These bots are claiming China intentionally created the virus, that it's a biological weapon, that Democrats are overstating the threat to hurt Donald Trump and more. While we can't confirm the origin of these bots, they are decidedly pro-Trump."[23]

Misinformation aside, concerns on accidental leakage by the WIV remain.[24] In 2017, US molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright, expressed caution when the WIV was expanded to become mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory, noting previous escapes of the SARS virus at other Chinese laboratories.[25] While Ebright refuted several conspiracy theories regarding the WIV (e.g. bioweapons research, that the virus was engineered), he told BBC China that this did not represent the possibility of the virus being "completely ruled out" from entering the population due to a laboratory accident.[24] On 6 February, the White House asked scientists and medical researchers to rapidly investigate the origins of the virus in order to address both the current spread and "to inform future outbreak preparation and better understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of coronaviruses."[26]

Tobias Ellwood MP, chairperson of the Defence Select Committee of the UK House of Commons, also publicly questioned the role of the Chinese Army's Wuhan Institute for Biological Products and called for the "greater transparency over the origins of the coronavirus".[27]

South China Morning Post reported that one of the Institute's lead researchers, Shi Zhengli, was the particular focus of personal attacks in Chinese social media who alleged her work on bat-based viruses as the source of the virus, leading Shi to post: "I swear with my life, [the virus] has nothing to do with the lab", and when asked by the SCMP to comment on the attacks, Shi responded: "My time must be spent on more important matters".[28] Caixin reported Shi made further public statements against "perceived tinfoil-hat theories about the new virus's source", quoting her as saying: "The novel 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits. I, Shi Zhengli, swear on my life that it has nothing to do with our laboratory".[29]

Far-right commentator Josh Bernstein claimed that the Democratic Party and the “medical deep state” were collaborating with the Chinese government to create and release the coronavirus in order to bring down Donald Trump. Bernstein went on to suggest that those responsible should be locked in a room with infected coronavirus patients as punishment.[30]

US biological weapon
Russian accusation
Further information: Cyberwarfare by Russia and Propaganda in the Russian Federation
On 22 February, US officials alleged that Russia is behind an ongoing disinformation campaign, using thousands of social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to deliberately promote unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming that the virus is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA and the US is waging economic war on China using the virus.[31][32][33] The acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Reeker, said that "Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine US institutions and alliances from within" and "by spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response".[31] Russia denies the allegation, saying "this is a deliberately false story".[34]

According to US-based The National Interest magazine, although official Russian channels had been muted on pushing the US biowarfare conspiracy theory, other Russian media elements don't share the Kremlin's restraint.[35] Zvezda, a news outlet funded by the Russian Defense Ministry, published an article titled "Coronavirus: American biological warfare against Russia and China", claiming that the virus is intended to damage the Chinese economy, weakening its hand in the next round of trade negotiations.[35] Ultra-nationalist politician and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, claimed on a Moscow radio station that the virus was an experiment by the Pentagon and pharmaceutical companies. Politician Igor Nikulin made rounds on Russian television and news media, arguing that Wuhan was chosen for the attack because the presence of a BSL-4 virus lab provided a cover story for the Pentagon and CIA about a Chinese bio-experiment leak.[35]

Iranian accusation
Further information: Propaganda in Iran
According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi accused US President Donald Trump of targeting Qom with coronavirus "to damage its culture and honor". Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites, if Iranians took revenge for the US airstrike that killed of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.[36]

Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed that the coronavirus was part of a "hybrid warfare" programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.[37]

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed that the coronavirus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.[38][39]

Hossein Salami, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that the coronavirus outbreak in Iran may be due to a US "biological attack".[40] Several Iranian politicians, including Ali Khamenei, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Rasoul Falahati, Alireza Panahian, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi and Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, also made similar remarks.[41] However, Iran's deputy health minister Reza Malekzadeh rejected the biological warfare theory.[42]

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the United Nations on 9 March, claiming that "it is clear to the world that the mutated coronavirus was produced in lab" and that COVID-19 is “a new weapon for establishing and/or maintaining political and economic upper hand in the global arena."[43]

Chinese accusation
Further information: Cyberwarfare by China and Propaganda in China
According to London-based The Economist, conspiracy theories about COVID-19 being the CIA's creation to keep China down are being spread widely over the Internet in China.[44] Although biological warfare against Chinese troops in the Korean war is only considered an allegation in the US, it is considered official history in China, thus greatly helping these new theories gain credibility.[45]

Multiple conspiracy articles in Chinese from the SARS era resurfaced during the outbreak with altered details, claiming that SARS is biological warfare conducted by the US against China. Some of these articles claim that BGI Group from China sold genetic information of the Chinese people to the US, with the US then being able to deploy the virus specifically targeting the genome of Chinese individuals.[46]

On 26 January, Chinese military news site Xilu published an article detailing how the virus was artificially combined by the US to "precisely target Chinese people".[47] The article was removed after early February.

Some articles on popular sites in Chinese have also cast suspicion on US military athletes participating in the Wuhan 2019 Military World Games, which lasted until the end of October 2019, and have suggested that they deployed the virus. They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below-average results of American athletes in the games indicate they might have been there for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives. Such posts stated that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.[48][45]

In March 2020, this conspiracy theory was endorsed by Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[49][50][51] On 13 March, the US government summoned Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai to Washington DC over the coronavirus conspiracy theory.[52]

Arab world
According to Washington DC-based nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, numerous writers in the Arabic press have promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19, as well as SARS and the swine flu virus, were deliberately created and spread by the US in order to sell vaccines against these diseases, and it is "part of an economic and psychological war waged by the US against China with the aim of weakening it and presenting it as a backward country and a source of diseases".[53] Iraqi political analyst Sabah Al-Akili on Al-Etejah TV, Saudi daily Al-Watan writer Sa'ud Al-Shehry, Syrian daily Al-Thawra columnist Hussein Saqer, and Egyptian journalist Ahmad Rif'at on Egyptian news website Vetogate, were some examples given by MEMRI as propagators of the US biowarfare conspiracy theory in the Arabic world.[53]

Philippines
A Filipino Senator, Tito Sotto, played a bioweapon conspiracy video in a February Senate hearing, suggesting that the coronavirus is biowarfare waged against China.[54][55]

Venezuela
Constituent Assembly member Elvis Méndez declared that the coronavirus is a "bacteriological sickness created in '89, in '90 and historically" and that it was a sickness "inoculated by the gringos". Méndez theorized that the virus was a weapon against Latin America, against China and that its purpose was to demoralize the people to "establish their system". He also assured that Venezuela was prepared to face the virus and that the country had the same medical preparation as Cuba.[56]

Zionist biological weapon
Further information: Antisemitic canard
Iran's Press TV asserted that "Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran".[57] Similarly, various Arab media outlets accused Israel and the United States of creating and spreading COVID-19, avian flu, and SARS.[58] Users on social media offered a variety of theories, including the supposition that Jews had manufactured COVID-19 to precipitate a global stock market collapse and thereby profit via insider trading, while a guest on Turkish television posited a more ambitious scenario in which Jews and Zionists had created COVID-19, avian flu, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever in order to "design the world, seize countries, [and] neuter the world's population".[59]

Spy operation
Some people have alleged that the coronavirus was stolen from a Canadian virus research lab by Chinese scientists, citing a news article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in July 2019.[60] The CBC claimed their early report was distorted by misinformation, and that Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that conspiracy theory had "no factual basis". Further, while the Chinese scientists had sent disease samples back to Beijing, neither sample sent during the 31 March 2019 transfer from Winnipeg, Canada to Beijing, China, was the current coronavirus. The current location of the missing Chinese researchers is confidential pending investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There is also no publicly available proof that the missing Chinese scientists were responsible for sending the pathogens to China.[61][62][63] In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, a senior research associate and expert in biological warfare with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, referring to a NATO press conference, identified suspicions of espionage as the reason behind the expulsions from the lab, but made no suggestion that coronavirus was taken from the Canadian lab or that it is the result of bioweapons defense research in China.[64]

Population control scheme
According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a conspiracy theory YouTuber supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, has falsely claimed the outbreak was a population control scheme created by Pirbright Institute in England and by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.[1][65]
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Travellin Dave

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #71 on: March 16, 2020, 11:02:21 AM »

Cousin of my kids has a wedding coming up end of April...should be interesting.
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FloridaDean

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #72 on: March 16, 2020, 11:04:02 AM »

okay. that's it for me. done with my notes. going to enjoy my cigar, hit the hottub, lay in the sun, drink coffee, and repeat.
later guys.
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bluecollar

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #73 on: March 16, 2020, 11:04:08 AM »

deal #2 at Sis looks good.

https://www.cigar.com/mobile/daily-cigar-deal
CAO gold is a nice Connecticut at 3.00 bucks is a nice price...
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bluecollar

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Re: 3/16/2020
« Reply #74 on: March 16, 2020, 11:06:06 AM »

Conspiracy theories

Chinese biological weapon
Further information: Cyberwarfare in the United States and Propaganda in the United States
In January 2020, the BBC published an article about coronavirus misinformation, citing two 24 January articles from The Washington Times which claimed the virus was part of a Chinese biological weapons program, based at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).[1][13] The Washington Post later published an article debunking the conspiracy theory, citing US experts who explained why the institute was not suitable for bioweapon research, that most countries had abandoned bioweapons as fruitless, and that there was no evidence that the virus was genetically engineered.[14]

In February 2020, US Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) as well as Francis Boyle, a law professor, suggested that the virus may have been a Chinese bioweapon,[15] while in the opinion of numerous medical experts there is no evidence for this.[16] Conservative political commentator Rush Limbaugh said on The Rush Limbaugh Show, the most popular radio show in the US, that the virus was probably "a ChiCom laboratory experiment" and that the Chinese were using the virus and the media hysteria surrounding it, to bring down Donald Trump.[17][18] In February 2020, The Financial Times reported from virus expert and global co-lead coronavirus investigator, Trevor Bedford, who said that "There is no evidence whatsoever of genetic engineering that we can find", and that, "The evidence we have is that the mutations [in the virus] are completely consistent with natural evolution".[19] Bedford further explained, "The most likely scenario, based on genetic analysis, was that the virus was transmitted by a bat to another mammal between 20–70 years ago. This intermediary animal—not yet identified—passed it on to its first human host in the city of Wuhan in late November or early December 2019".[19]

On 29 January, financial news website and blog ZeroHedge suggested, without evidence, that a scientist at the WIV created the COVID-19 strain responsible for the coronavirus outbreak. Zerohedge listed the full contact details of the scientist supposedly responsible, a practice known as doxing, by including the scientist's name, photo and phone number, suggesting to readers that they "pay [the Chinese scientist] a visit" if they wanted to know "what really caused the coronavirus pandemic".[20] Twitter later permanently suspended the blog's account for violating its platform manipulation policy.[21]

In January 2020, Buzzfeed News also reported on an internet meme/conspiracy theory of a link between the logo of the WIV and "Umbrella Corporation", the agency that made the virus that starts the zombie apocalypse in the Resident Evil franchise. The theory also saw a link between "Racoon" (the main city in Resident Evil), and an anagram of "Corona" (the name of the virus).[22] The popularity of this theory attracted the attention of Snopes, who proved it as false showing that the logo was not from the Institute, but from Shanghai Ruilan Bao Hu San Biotech Limited, located approximately 500 miles (800 km) away in Shanghai and additionally pointed out that the proper name of the city in Resident Evil is Raccoon City.[22]

The Inverse reported that "Christopher Bouzy, the founder of Bot Sentinel, did a Twitter analysis for Inverse and found [online] bots and trollbots are making an array of false claims. These bots are claiming China intentionally created the virus, that it's a biological weapon, that Democrats are overstating the threat to hurt Donald Trump and more. While we can't confirm the origin of these bots, they are decidedly pro-Trump."[23]

Misinformation aside, concerns on accidental leakage by the WIV remain.[24] In 2017, US molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright, expressed caution when the WIV was expanded to become mainland China's first biosafety level 4 (BSL–4) laboratory, noting previous escapes of the SARS virus at other Chinese laboratories.[25] While Ebright refuted several conspiracy theories regarding the WIV (e.g. bioweapons research, that the virus was engineered), he told BBC China that this did not represent the possibility of the virus being "completely ruled out" from entering the population due to a laboratory accident.[24] On 6 February, the White House asked scientists and medical researchers to rapidly investigate the origins of the virus in order to address both the current spread and "to inform future outbreak preparation and better understand animal/human and environmental transmission aspects of coronaviruses."[26]

Tobias Ellwood MP, chairperson of the Defence Select Committee of the UK House of Commons, also publicly questioned the role of the Chinese Army's Wuhan Institute for Biological Products and called for the "greater transparency over the origins of the coronavirus".[27]

South China Morning Post reported that one of the Institute's lead researchers, Shi Zhengli, was the particular focus of personal attacks in Chinese social media who alleged her work on bat-based viruses as the source of the virus, leading Shi to post: "I swear with my life, [the virus] has nothing to do with the lab", and when asked by the SCMP to comment on the attacks, Shi responded: "My time must be spent on more important matters".[28] Caixin reported Shi made further public statements against "perceived tinfoil-hat theories about the new virus's source", quoting her as saying: "The novel 2019 coronavirus is nature punishing the human race for keeping uncivilized living habits. I, Shi Zhengli, swear on my life that it has nothing to do with our laboratory".[29]

Far-right commentator Josh Bernstein claimed that the Democratic Party and the “medical deep state” were collaborating with the Chinese government to create and release the coronavirus in order to bring down Donald Trump. Bernstein went on to suggest that those responsible should be locked in a room with infected coronavirus patients as punishment.[30]

US biological weapon
Russian accusation
Further information: Cyberwarfare by Russia and Propaganda in the Russian Federation
On 22 February, US officials alleged that Russia is behind an ongoing disinformation campaign, using thousands of social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to deliberately promote unfounded conspiracy theories, claiming that the virus is a biological weapon manufactured by the CIA and the US is waging economic war on China using the virus.[31][32][33] The acting assistant secretary of state for Europe and Eurasia, Philip Reeker, said that "Russia's intent is to sow discord and undermine US institutions and alliances from within" and "by spreading disinformation about coronavirus, Russian malign actors are once again choosing to threaten public safety by distracting from the global health response".[31] Russia denies the allegation, saying "this is a deliberately false story".[34]

According to US-based The National Interest magazine, although official Russian channels had been muted on pushing the US biowarfare conspiracy theory, other Russian media elements don't share the Kremlin's restraint.[35] Zvezda, a news outlet funded by the Russian Defense Ministry, published an article titled "Coronavirus: American biological warfare against Russia and China", claiming that the virus is intended to damage the Chinese economy, weakening its hand in the next round of trade negotiations.[35] Ultra-nationalist politician and leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, claimed on a Moscow radio station that the virus was an experiment by the Pentagon and pharmaceutical companies. Politician Igor Nikulin made rounds on Russian television and news media, arguing that Wuhan was chosen for the attack because the presence of a BSL-4 virus lab provided a cover story for the Pentagon and CIA about a Chinese bio-experiment leak.[35]

Iranian accusation
Further information: Propaganda in Iran
According to Radio Farda, Iranian cleric Seyyed Mohammad Saeedi accused US President Donald Trump of targeting Qom with coronavirus "to damage its culture and honor". Saeedi claimed that Trump is fulfilling his promise to hit Iranian cultural sites, if Iranians took revenge for the US airstrike that killed of Quds Force Commander Qasem Soleimani.[36]

Iranian TV personality Ali Akbar Raefipour claimed that the coronavirus was part of a "hybrid warfare" programme waged by the United States on Iran and China.[37]

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, head of Iranian Civil Defense Organization, claimed that the coronavirus is likely a biological attack on China and Iran with economic goals.[38][39]

Hossein Salami, the head of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claimed that the coronavirus outbreak in Iran may be due to a US "biological attack".[40] Several Iranian politicians, including Ali Khamenei, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Rasoul Falahati, Alireza Panahian, Abolfazl Hasanbeigi and Gholamali Jafarzadeh Imanabadi, also made similar remarks.[41] However, Iran's deputy health minister Reza Malekzadeh rejected the biological warfare theory.[42]

Former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent a letter to the United Nations on 9 March, claiming that "it is clear to the world that the mutated coronavirus was produced in lab" and that COVID-19 is “a new weapon for establishing and/or maintaining political and economic upper hand in the global arena."[43]

Chinese accusation
Further information: Cyberwarfare by China and Propaganda in China
According to London-based The Economist, conspiracy theories about COVID-19 being the CIA's creation to keep China down are being spread widely over the Internet in China.[44] Although biological warfare against Chinese troops in the Korean war is only considered an allegation in the US, it is considered official history in China, thus greatly helping these new theories gain credibility.[45]

Multiple conspiracy articles in Chinese from the SARS era resurfaced during the outbreak with altered details, claiming that SARS is biological warfare conducted by the US against China. Some of these articles claim that BGI Group from China sold genetic information of the Chinese people to the US, with the US then being able to deploy the virus specifically targeting the genome of Chinese individuals.[46]

On 26 January, Chinese military news site Xilu published an article detailing how the virus was artificially combined by the US to "precisely target Chinese people".[47] The article was removed after early February.

Some articles on popular sites in Chinese have also cast suspicion on US military athletes participating in the Wuhan 2019 Military World Games, which lasted until the end of October 2019, and have suggested that they deployed the virus. They claim the inattentive attitude and disproportionately below-average results of American athletes in the games indicate they might have been there for other purposes and they might actually be bio-warfare operatives. Such posts stated that their place of residence during their stay in Wuhan was also close to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the first known cluster of cases occurred.[48][45]

In March 2020, this conspiracy theory was endorsed by Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[49][50][51] On 13 March, the US government summoned Chinese Ambassador Cui Tiankai to Washington DC over the coronavirus conspiracy theory.[52]

Arab world
According to Washington DC-based nonprofit Middle East Media Research Institute, numerous writers in the Arabic press have promoted the conspiracy theory that COVID-19, as well as SARS and the swine flu virus, were deliberately created and spread by the US in order to sell vaccines against these diseases, and it is "part of an economic and psychological war waged by the US against China with the aim of weakening it and presenting it as a backward country and a source of diseases".[53] Iraqi political analyst Sabah Al-Akili on Al-Etejah TV, Saudi daily Al-Watan writer Sa'ud Al-Shehry, Syrian daily Al-Thawra columnist Hussein Saqer, and Egyptian journalist Ahmad Rif'at on Egyptian news website Vetogate, were some examples given by MEMRI as propagators of the US biowarfare conspiracy theory in the Arabic world.[53]

Philippines
A Filipino Senator, Tito Sotto, played a bioweapon conspiracy video in a February Senate hearing, suggesting that the coronavirus is biowarfare waged against China.[54][55]

Venezuela
Constituent Assembly member Elvis Méndez declared that the coronavirus is a "bacteriological sickness created in '89, in '90 and historically" and that it was a sickness "inoculated by the gringos". Méndez theorized that the virus was a weapon against Latin America, against China and that its purpose was to demoralize the people to "establish their system". He also assured that Venezuela was prepared to face the virus and that the country had the same medical preparation as Cuba.[56]

Zionist biological weapon
Further information: Antisemitic canard
Iran's Press TV asserted that "Zionist elements developed a deadlier strain of coronavirus against Iran".[57] Similarly, various Arab media outlets accused Israel and the United States of creating and spreading COVID-19, avian flu, and SARS.[58] Users on social media offered a variety of theories, including the supposition that Jews had manufactured COVID-19 to precipitate a global stock market collapse and thereby profit via insider trading, while a guest on Turkish television posited a more ambitious scenario in which Jews and Zionists had created COVID-19, avian flu, and Crimean–Congo hemorrhagic fever in order to "design the world, seize countries, [and] neuter the world's population".[59]

Spy operation
Some people have alleged that the coronavirus was stolen from a Canadian virus research lab by Chinese scientists, citing a news article by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in July 2019.[60] The CBC claimed their early report was distorted by misinformation, and that Eric Morrissette, chief of media relations for Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada said that conspiracy theory had "no factual basis". Further, while the Chinese scientists had sent disease samples back to Beijing, neither sample sent during the 31 March 2019 transfer from Winnipeg, Canada to Beijing, China, was the current coronavirus. The current location of the missing Chinese researchers is confidential pending investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. There is also no publicly available proof that the missing Chinese scientists were responsible for sending the pathogens to China.[61][62][63] In the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, a senior research associate and expert in biological warfare with the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, referring to a NATO press conference, identified suspicions of espionage as the reason behind the expulsions from the lab, but made no suggestion that coronavirus was taken from the Canadian lab or that it is the result of bioweapons defense research in China.[64]

Population control scheme
According to the BBC, Jordan Sather, a conspiracy theory YouTuber supporting the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory and the anti-vax movement, has falsely claimed the outbreak was a population control scheme created by Pirbright Institute in England and by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates.[1][65]
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