That the current global pandemic is not really is a fallacy that must not be nursed. Covid-19 has claimed the lives of over two million people across the globe and left over a hundred thousand in critical conditions. Due to the controversial source of the virus and the international politics fanned by the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, there has been lots of conspiracy theory about the realness of the disease.
A video that went viral, claimed that the pandemic virus is part of a conspiracy to control the general public. The video clip shows the founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates, warning that the world needs to “prepare” for the next pandemic. The video argued that the pandemic was planned and used to control the general public.
The narrator in the video claimed that the virus is a scam. He claimed that the test being conducted globally is testing for RNA viruses and generic material. “All deaths are basically being labeled as COVID deaths now whether they are or not. All you have to do is test positive for this genetic material in your body and it’ll say covid-19”, the narrator claimed.
In Nigeria, there are those who claimed that the virus is not real and also join others outside the country to claim that it is part of a larger conspiracy either against Africa or to usher in a new world order. In the thick of the pandemic and lockdown last year, the Governor of Cross River state, Professor Ben Ayade, who is also an Environmental Microbiologist, argued that the restrictions by the government were not necessary. He argued that there was no need for social distancing especially when one is already masked. In a video that went viral, the governor said, “You don’t need social distancing when you are properly protected because for your mucus glands that secretes the mucus and the mucins already form a network of coats to attack the virus.
Another Governor, Yahaya Bello of Kogi state claimed on his Facebook page that ninety percent of the news about COVID-19 is political, economic and financial gain. He said the other ten percent relates to ordinary flu, like the common cold Nigerians generally suffer. While government of other states was putting various restrictions in place to curb the spread of the virus, the governor never allowed testing for the virus in his state.
Recently, the governor in anther video that went viral commented on the vaccines that were procured by the Federal Government to combat the disease in the country, “They want to use the (COVID-19) vaccines to introduce the disease that will kill you and us. God forbid! These vaccines are being produced in less than one year of COVID-19. There is no vaccine yet for HIV, malaria, cancer and for several diseases that are killing us… We should draw our minds back to what happened in Kano during the polio vaccines that crippled and killed our children. We have learned our lessons.”
Impact News is worried that public officials would utter statements like these to misinform the public on issues that are related to health of the populace. We advise that politicians should leave health-related matters for experts and professionals to advised rather than fan the embers of misinformation that can lead to loss of innocent lives in avoidable circumstances.
We therefore advise that the Federal Government and its agencies must rise to the occasion and quash the flames of conspiracy theories that are flying across social media. We need as a country to learn lessons from the misinformation that led to the prolonged polio disease in Nigeria and join the rest of the world to combat the spread of covid-19.
