DISINFO: COVID-19 is an ordinary flu epidemic, hysteria is caused by media and politics
SUMMARY
If we had tested people for corona last year, the same would have happened now. Corona is a completely ordinary kind of flu epidemic, which is completely exaggerated and the big question that all journalists should be interested in – why is that actually the case? The current approach of the Austrian government is fascistic and totalitarian. After all, one is not allowed to have any contradictory opinion. The current crisis is a product of hysteria caused by media and politics.
RESPONSE
An unfounded conspiracy theory, that COVID-19 is a normal flu, sharing a recurrent narrative about the COVID-19 outbreak. It also aims to discredit actions taken by the WHO and individual countries, like in this case Austria, to stop the spread of the disease, describing its measures as fascistic and totalitarian. COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation on 11 March, acknowledging that the virus had become a global phenomenon. Before that date, the situation was being described as an epidemic, illustrating that the virus had already spread to many people, and many communities, at the same time. As of 9th May, the total number of COVID-19 cases detected had passed 3.8 million. COVID-19 comes from a family of viruses originating in animals that include other viruses such as SARS and MERS. It was first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in central China and has been rapidly spreading across the world, with cases being reported in over 190 countries, territories and areas. The number of COVID-19 global deaths has now passed 280,000. See similar disinformation narrative alleging that the COVID-19 crisis is manufactured by media.