Some conspiracy theorists have compared the outbreak to the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming it was another attempt to control the world’s population, while others have pushed a false narrative that the COVID-19 vaccine caused the hantavirus. Several others promoted ivermectin as a treatment, using the incident as a way to sell emergency medical kits containing the anti-parasitic drug commonly used as a dewormer in horses.
In recent days, many of these same people spreading conspiracy theories have promoted baseless and anti-Semitic claims that the entire incident is a false flag orchestrated by Israel.
Conspiracy theories flooding social media in response to breaking news are nothing new, but what’s striking about those being pushed around the Hantavirus outbreak is how much they replicate conspiracy theories promoted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“One of the most striking shifts since the Covid pandemic is how quickly disinformation narratives are now organizing themselves around emerging outbreaks,” Catherine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Public Health, told WIRED.
“Within hours of the first Hantavirus headlines, social media accounts were already promoting ivermectin, attributing the outbreak to Covid vaccines, and warning that there is no vaccine for Hantavirus. The claims themselves were often contradictory, but this contradiction appears to no longer be limiting their spread.”
Once the Hantavirus outbreak started making headlines around the world, conspiracy theorists and scammers jumped into action, spreading seriously ill-conceived claims and, of course, trying to sell people ivermectin.
“Ivermectin should work against it,” Mary Talley Bowden wrote on Ex. Bowden, MD, a prominent purveyor of medical misinformation, has promoted ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 and prescribed ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient. Hours after her first post on Hantavirus went viral, she followed up to say she sells ivermectin to Texans. Boudin did not respond to a request for comment.
Her post, which has been viewed 4 million times, was shared by former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who added that vitamin D and zinc would help fight infections. Greene even claimed that not getting the COVID-19 vaccine somehow allowed her to “develop a natural immunity” to the Hantavirus.
Greene separately claimed, without evidence, that the drug company Moderna intentionally tampered with the virus in order to allow it to profit from the development of a vaccine for Hantavirus. Green did not respond to a request for comment.
Other purveyors of health misinformation have bolstered the ivermectin claims, including Simon Gould, founder of the coronavirus denial group Frontline Doctors of America, and Peter McCullough, a misinformation peddler who promoted a “sudden death” conspiracy theory about the Covid-19 vaccine, who falsely claimed that those who received the vaccine were at risk of falling ill without any warning.
McCullough also serves as chief scientific officer of The Wellness Company, which has been described as “Goop for the GOP.” The company used the Hantavirus outbreak to promote a $325 infection emergency kit that includes both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
All the false claims and posts about ivermectin gained enough attention online that the World Health Organization responded by saying that there is no research to suggest that ivermectin is an effective treatment for Hantavirus.
Meanwhile, conspiracy theorists have been pushing the baseless idea that one of the side effects of Covid vaccines includes contracting the Hantavirus.
