Going Viral: COVID Conspiracies in Historical Perspective

As national governments and the global scientific community struggle to contain the spread of the coronavirus, they have also spent the last few months confronting a different type of outbreak. Misinformation about the current public health crisis—which has either denied the existence of the virus entirely or framed it as an intentional product—has proliferated at an alarming rate. It has also enjoyed the most mainstream attention of any conspiracy theory since the 9/11 truther movement. Written by Cameron Givens. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at http://origins.osu.edu/connecting-history/covid-influenza-conspiracies-fake-news. This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit http://origins.osu.edu. Production by Laura Seeger and Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. Production Assistance by Kristin Osborne. Audio Production by Paul Kotheimer, College of Arts & Sciences Academic Technology Services. The Origins' editorial team includes Editors Nicholas Breyfogle, Steven Conn and David Steigerwald; Managing Editors Lauren Henry, Sarah Paxton and Brionna Mendoza; Associate Editor: Kristin Osborne. We thank the Stanton Foundation for their funding of this and other Origins projects. http://thestantonfoundation.org/ This content is made possible, in part, by Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this content do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Follow us on Twitter: @HistoryTalkPod and @OriginsOSU, Facebook: @Origins OSU and Tumblr: at osuorigins.tumblr.com.