Mpox epidemic reawakens Covid-era conspiracy theories
The main players in the conspiracy theories of the 2020-2021 pandemic quickly revised their rhetoric to fit mpox: Silvano Trotta, the great craftsman of disinformation in French-speaking spheres in 2020; Quebecer Alexis Cossette, a conduit of conspiracy tales between the United States and France in the heyday of the QAnon movement; Richard Ebright, a biologist and fervent advocate of the (never proven) hypothesis of a laboratory-derived SARS-CoV-2; and certain branches of RéinfoCovid, an anti-restriction and anti-RNA vaccine collective.
Illustrated with a photograph of Bill Gates with his face covered in dollar sign-shaped sores, the same reasoning resurfaced: "Follow the money," implying that the American multi-billionaire, the WHO's largest private donor, would profit from every health crisis, thanks to his patents on vaccines. Back in the spring of 2020, the Microsoft founder was the target of relentless conspiracy theories blaming him for the emergence of Covid-19. Just as his participation in a health emergency preparedness exercise in October 2019 had been interpreted as planning for Covid-19, a 2021 speech in which he evoked fears of a possible bioterrorist use of smallpox is now being presented as evidence of his involvement in the spread of a new strain of mpox.
Right from the start, the Covid-19 pandemic was plagued by speculation about a virus that escaped from a laboratory. From the possibility of a research accident to the Hollywood scenario of a biological weapon, one theory after another popped up. Four and a half years later, mpox is getting the same treatment: A 2019 news report showing laboratory work on a smallpox strain is being cited to claim that the virus "has been completely reproduced by Canadian researchers," "with the aim of killing us off," according to an Internet user.
Other conspiracy theorists already view the WHO alert as the work of "Big Pharma," a supposed conspiracy by pharmaceutical multinationals. For Silvano Trotta, "you have to build up fear so that the first simpletons start getting vaccinated to drag the others along." But this interpretation too is incorrect, since vaccines against smallpox and its various strains are generic drugs and therefore make little money for Big Pharma.
Going even further, Cossette, convinced like so many Trumpist activists that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, sees a link between the WHO alert and next November's US presidential election. This despite the fact that mpox is already on its second WHO alert in two years, and that at last count, it hadn't prevented any elections from taking place.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/...149_8.html
The main players in the conspiracy theories of the 2020-2021 pandemic quickly revised their rhetoric to fit mpox: Silvano Trotta, the great craftsman of disinformation in French-speaking spheres in 2020; Quebecer Alexis Cossette, a conduit of conspiracy tales between the United States and France in the heyday of the QAnon movement; Richard Ebright, a biologist and fervent advocate of the (never proven) hypothesis of a laboratory-derived SARS-CoV-2; and certain branches of RéinfoCovid, an anti-restriction and anti-RNA vaccine collective.
Illustrated with a photograph of Bill Gates with his face covered in dollar sign-shaped sores, the same reasoning resurfaced: "Follow the money," implying that the American multi-billionaire, the WHO's largest private donor, would profit from every health crisis, thanks to his patents on vaccines. Back in the spring of 2020, the Microsoft founder was the target of relentless conspiracy theories blaming him for the emergence of Covid-19. Just as his participation in a health emergency preparedness exercise in October 2019 had been interpreted as planning for Covid-19, a 2021 speech in which he evoked fears of a possible bioterrorist use of smallpox is now being presented as evidence of his involvement in the spread of a new strain of mpox.
Right from the start, the Covid-19 pandemic was plagued by speculation about a virus that escaped from a laboratory. From the possibility of a research accident to the Hollywood scenario of a biological weapon, one theory after another popped up. Four and a half years later, mpox is getting the same treatment: A 2019 news report showing laboratory work on a smallpox strain is being cited to claim that the virus "has been completely reproduced by Canadian researchers," "with the aim of killing us off," according to an Internet user.
Other conspiracy theorists already view the WHO alert as the work of "Big Pharma," a supposed conspiracy by pharmaceutical multinationals. For Silvano Trotta, "you have to build up fear so that the first simpletons start getting vaccinated to drag the others along." But this interpretation too is incorrect, since vaccines against smallpox and its various strains are generic drugs and therefore make little money for Big Pharma.
Going even further, Cossette, convinced like so many Trumpist activists that the 2020 election was stolen by the Democrats, sees a link between the WHO alert and next November's US presidential election. This despite the fact that mpox is already on its second WHO alert in two years, and that at last count, it hadn't prevented any elections from taking place.
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/...149_8.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"