The coronavirus pandemic is considered the biggest public health crisis in recent times. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the COVID-19 outbreak is the “biggest challenge for the world since World War Two”. (Image: Reuters)
There are several bizarre theories around how the outbreak began, all of which are unsupported and baseless. While it is a fact that the first cases were reported in Wuhan, capital of China’s Hubei province, there is still insufficient knowledge about COVID-19’s origin. (Image: Reuters)
Coronavirus is a bioweapon: There are several versions of this theory, most of which allege the virus had been released from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. One version claims Chinese spies stole this virus from a lab in Canada and turned it into a biological weapon. There is no though to support these theories. (Image: Reuters)
5G played a role: American singer Keri Hilson, who has 4.2 million Twitter followers, was the first to trigger a chain of social media posts on this theory. There is so far no research that proves a link between 5G airwaves and the novel coronavirus. A report by CNET debunked this theory. (Image: Reuters)
The US military brought the virus to China: This theory was first promoted by China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. Some US athletes had attended the Military World Games held in Wuhan in October 2019. But there is no proof that any of the athletes were infected by the novel coronavirus. (Representative image)
Transmission from bats in a Wuhan market: Scientists have found strains of the coronavirus in pangolins smuggled from Malaysia to China, but it is unknown how the virus transmitted from the pangolins to the bats. The WHO has said that COVID-19 “most probably has its ecological reservoir in bats”, but has not conclusively said it was transmitted from bats to humans. (Image: Reuters)
