Corona Virus Conspiracies.

I believe that this is an important subject right now when vaccinations are ongoing. I thank @suvachana for suggesting this.

First of all, I want to discuss all of the most ridiculous conspiracy theories about Covid-19, the virus that's responsible for the pandemic that has killed over a half million Americans and millions more around the world.

People, including several notable politicians, tried to downplay the pandemic by claiming that it was not any worse than the flu. Seasonal flu, even with a flu vaccine, kills anywhere from twelve thousand to thirty-six thousand Americans every year. This virus has killed 18,000 people in Ohio, my state. This would be like what a normal flu season would kill in the entire United States. This Covid-19 virus has resulted in twenty-years-worth of flu deaths. The question is, why is it more infectious and deadly.

Flu like viruses, including the Corona-like variety have been around for billions of years in animals. Bats are one species that harbor these viruses, and they can transfer them to animals by biting. Animals can transfer them to humans. Viruses mutate by genetic changes brought on by screw ups in their replication. This genetic variation upon reproduction is the reason for evolution and it's how we got to be the dominant species on this planet.

A Corona-like virus is an RNA fragment encased in a lipid sac, which is called a capsid. The outside of corona virus has club-like spikes with proteins on them, which have membrane binding and fusion properties. These spike proteins are how the virus latches onto a cell and then infects it by fusing with a cell's outer surface and then injecting the RNA fragment into the cell's nucleus to use the cell reproductive system to create new viruses, which then break out of the cell, destroying it. This is a very complicated process, but it's how the Corona virus causes damage to cells, especially in the lungs. The main method that the virus uses to get inside a cell is by utilizing ACE2 (angiotensin-converting enzyme 2). It's an enzyme (a protein that acts as a biological catalysis that accelerate chemical reactions) attached to the membranes of cells in the lungs, arteries, heart, kidney and intestines. This is the main reason that Covid-19 attacks those organs because it's where these ACE2 utilizing cells are.

Like most life forms on this planet, viruses have evolved to infect animals and humans in a very efficient manner, and they've been around for a lot longer than we have. The Covid-19 SARS like virus has mutated into several variants that are even more infectious and deadly. It's what viruses do.

One of the most ridiculous theories is that facial masks don't work. They worked back during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The reason why a mask works is because the most efficacious method that the virus uses to infect others is by having the infected person cough or sneeze, which spreads tiny droplets containing the virus that other people breath in and become infected. A mask prevents to a certain extend this transmission of droplets through the air. The reason that doubters give is that even with mask wearing, the infections continue. The reason for that is that infected asymptomatic people are transmitting the virus without realizing it. This is also the reason that social distending works to prevent the spread.

Another reason that people give for not being concerned about this virus is that they claim they never get the flu. The reason for that is that we humans have a certain number of antibodies against the common flu. However, we didn't have any immunity against this Covid-19 virus. That's how a pandemic gets going. It attacks a lot of people before anyone realizes what's going on. Keep in mind that viruses have been around a lot longer than we have. They are very efficient in infecting us.

Covid-19 came from a Wuhan lab. That's been officially debunked. It's believed that Covid-19 originated in bats and that it was transferred to animals by biting, animals that are used as food in China. Experts believe that the virus transferred to humans in Wuhan wild animal meat markets. Eventually, the theory that it came from a lab will eventually be proven wrong by forensic science.

The same can be said for the theories that it was an American, Israeli, or Canadian biological weapon. No proof for any of that.
It was caused by 5G networks. Ha! Maybe Apple and Samsung are responsible for it. The theorists claim that the pandemic is a coverup for 5G transmitted illnesses. Thomas Cowen, a holistic medical practitioner, claimed that the virus was created by 5G networks. No way. There's no evidence to prove that. The amount of electromagnetic energy coming from cellular towers is so low as to be impossible to cause any sort of biological effect. People probably get more radiation from holding their cell phone against their ear. Of course, this theory caused a bunch of arson nuts to attack UK cell phone masts over the 2020 Easter weekend.

The death numbers for Covid-19 were exaggerated. This was the major theory running around through most of last year. The idea here was to pretend that deaths were not happening in hospitals all around the country, not to mention the plethora of cases in the rest of the world. The problem here is that hospitals were swamped with cases and deaths were rampant. Go talk to the family survivors of those that died. They would give you a much different account of the utter devastation of this virus. Politicians and doubters use this to make excuses for their failure to recognize the danger of this virus and the death it has imposed on the world. If you want to see what political denial damage can do, look at Brazil.

The number of cases is exaggerated by testing. Give me a break. The truth is that there has not been enough testing and tracing. It's the main reason that the virus has had its way.  All of these downplay arguments are people trying to find a way to get back to normal by fantasy not real science. If no actions had been taken to mitigate the virus's spread, many more people would have gotten sick and died. This alone would have destroyed the US economy because people that were sick couldn't work, and the same thing could be said for customers. The death that resulted would have eclipsed the plagues that devastated the populations of Europe.

The idea that this virus is not that bad is ludicrous. It's the worse pandemic we've seen in a hundred years, and its aftermath will persist for a very long time. It's not going away, despite what people think. It's going to require a booster shot ever year just like the flu.
Now for the vaccine conspiracy theories.

There are three Covid vaccines out there right now with more to follow. The Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines have been approved by the CDC for emergency use only. They are unapproved vaccines, which take a lot longer to get approval. However, they have gone through phase 3 testing, which is a double-blind test, which means that half of the subjects got the virus vaccine and half got a placebo. This is the scientifically accepted way to test the efficacy and safety of a new vaccine.

The most outrageous Covid vaccine conspiracy theories in order of absurdity.

The vaccine has a microchip in it. That's ridiculous! The government can track you using your phone. They don't need a microchip in a vaccine to do that.

The vaccine will alter your DNA. What will you become, a virus? No way that's going to happen. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a method that has been around for a while but has not been used for a flu-like disease. It's a proven method. The way it works is to place a mRNA (messenger RNA) inside a lipid sac. When injected into your blood stream, this mRNA gets into your cells and makes them produce the protein on the spikes of the Corona virus, which in turn causes the immune system to produce antibodies against that protein and, by association, the virus itself. That's what vaccines do. They power up your immune system against the virus. Now, since the vaccine is using mRNA, it cannot alter your DNA. Messenger RNA can only make proteins.

The vaccine will infect you with Covid-19. Sorry, that doesn't work that way. Messenger RNA is not the virus. Some flu vaccines use a killed virus or a crippled virus to bolster your immune system. The Covid vaccines don't use that method.
Our immune systems are better than the vaccine. This is Sen. Rand Paul's argument. He claims that the survival rate for Covid-19 is 99%. The vaccines are less than that, in the 94-97% range. What he doesn't understand is that these comparisons are not valid. Even though a lot of people survive being infected, they have long term effects that are terrible. Even though people survive, there are hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The Vaccine will kill you.  How does that work. If we give nearly everyone in the country the vaccine and kill them, how would that help the economy? Yes, there have been a small number of people die after getting the vaccine, but the causes of that could be due to a preexisting condition. It turns out that all medical procedures, including approved drugs cause a small percentage of deaths. It's just that nothing is perfect.

All I can say is that this has been one of the worst crises since World War II, and the politicians and the doubters will be labeled as the main reason that the virus caused so much devastation.

My wife's sister's husband died from Covid-19 because he went out with friends without worrying about social distending. My granddaughter was infected because she went out with her friends for her birthday and one of them had it and infected all of them. She was sick for a week but recovered. She should have known better because she's a nurse.

I don't know where this is going, but I am a scientist and will go with the consensus about this pandemic. It's the sensible thing to do.

Thanks for reading, and please stay safe.