COVID-19: Virus or Viral Conspiracy Theories?

Date

2020-03-16

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

BiomedGrid LLC

Abstract

A novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV2 has attracted considerable attention in the past three months, unlike its sisters the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and the disease it causes has been termed “coronavirus disease 2019” (COVID-19). The mortality rate of COVID-19, however, is lesser than that of SARS and MERS. Then why does COVID-19 seem to be a scarier pandemic than any before? Is it a serious virus outbreak or a sort of violence that has perpetrated across communities? The outbreak of the virus itself feels like it’s happening in your own home. This article attempts to understand the reasons for the widespread attention received by COVID-19. To do so, it briefly presents what is known so far about the SARS-CoV2 virus. After that, it explores whether the media has played a role in the widespread and perhaps exaggerated attention directed at COVID-19. At the dawn of 2020, several pneumonia cases were reported in the city of Wuhan, China, that were caused by a novel coronavirus.

Description

This article is not available at CUD collection. The version of scholarly record of this article paper is published in American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research (2020), available online at: https://doi.org/10.34297/AJBSR.2020.08.001252

Keywords

COVID-19, novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV2

Citation

Abaido, G. M., & Takshe, A. A. (2020). COVID-19: Virus or viral conspiracy theories. American Journal of Biomedical Science & Research, 8(2). http://dx.doi.org/10.34297/AJBSR.2020.08.001252

DOI