COVID-19: Virus or Viral Conspiracy Theories?

Abstract

A novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV2 has attracted considerable attention in the past three months, unlike its sisters the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), and the disease it causes has been termed "coronavirus disease 2019" (COVID-19). The mortality rate of COVID-19, however, is lesser than that of SARS and MERS. Then why does COVID-19 seem to be a scarier pandemic than any before? Is it a serious virus outbreak or a sort of violence that has perpetrated across communities? The outbreak of the virus itself feels like it's happening in your own home. This article attempts to understand the reasons for the widespread attention received by COVID-19. To do so, it briefly presents what is known so far about the SARS-CoV2 virus. After that, it explores whether the media has played a role in the widespread and perhaps exaggerated attention directed at COVID-19. At the dawn of 2020, several pneumonia cases were reported in the city of Wuhan, China, that were caused by a novel coronavirus. 122