Lockdown Lessons: Conspiracies
With more time to spend, a few sections of the society have started spreading conspiracy theories. Even media has left no stone unturned and is regularly holding debates on these conspiracies. I'll try to bust these conspiracies and answer them in such a way that everyone can understand them.
1. The Chinese Conspiracy
This is the most popular theory spreading amongst the WhatsApp activists and experts. The key elements are as follows:-
i. China has created the virus artificially in a lab in Wuhan and has a vaccine and treatment to it.
ii. Slowly allowed it to spread to various countries and at the same time making sure that it does not spread to other areas outside Wuhan in China.
iii. Made sure to buy stocks at a throwaway price in Chinese companies when foreign investors sold their holdings in big Chinese companies. Stabilized their own stock market and simultaneously contained the virus.
iv. Now they are back to full power and want to cash on slumped oil price and needs of the other countries.
This story would definitely make a great novel but then there is no statistical backing. Let's bust the theories.
i. After extensive sequencing by various organizations, both Chinese and international, it has been concluded that the source is natural and not artificial. Latest findings indicate that the virus could be a chimaera of two preexisting viruses, RaTG13 and other being pangolin virus. Once the whole pandemic subsides we might get a clear answer regarding the animal source but its crystal clear that it is not artificial.
ii. They didn't really go around spreading it. It was our carelessness that we got hold of it. Even when the cases spiked in Wuhan, direct flights between Milan in Italy and Wuhan in China didn't stop causing the virus to spread across countries. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong reacted quickly and restricted the number of cases due to previous horrifying experience gained due to the SARS epidemic in 2003-2004.
iii. Investors were losing money and hence exited where they saw fit but the government couldn't leave the market exposed. Hence, the government infused money into these shares and stabilized the market. The Chinese government also limited the number trades restricting the number of shares which one could sell or buy. This happens all around the world. Even the NIFTY50 circuit breakers are triggered if the market falls by 10% and the trading halts. Another example is SBI and ICICI buying YES bank shares at 10Rs to prevent it from sinking.
iv. China has nothing to do with the slump in oil prices. It is happening due to issues between Russia and the OPEC - the crude oil cartel. Saudi has decided to increase its production capacity to 12 million barrels/day from 10 million barrels/day for the first time even though it could do it long ago. The sad part being there wouldn't be any consumption as the world has slowed down completely.
Other countries needs now are nothing but health equipment like ventilators, masks and suits. China has to and will give much of the equipment for free on a humanitarian basis as many countries did the same when they were facing such issues.
2. US of A version
This particular version has flabbergasted me. They claim that the Coronavirus was created in the USA and then they spread it in China. As explained earlier it is not artificial. With the ongoing tussle between China and the USA regarding various good, I am confident that there will be spying going on between both the countries. Lots of intelligence could be going on and hence it would be really difficult for the USA to execute such a plan. And if the USA did succeed in goofing China, then they created a weapon which came back and bit them hard and thereby preventing them from cleaning their shit.
3. India did it to shun the Shaheen Bagh protests
There isn't much to explain on this. Logic died real hard after this.
Lockdown could be boring and if you are having any unsolved mysteries then you tell them to me here https://bit.ly/PuzzlingMysteries and I'll try to solve them.