God-Sent or Man-Made? Debunking Myths

The current pandemic has put forward many stumbling blocks before the world. With our global health system in shambles and the world economy on the verge of the biggest recession since 2008, COVID-19 is not only costing us billions of dollars but hundreds of thousands of lives as well.

As the outbreak continues to prey on humankind, the worldwide number of deaths has surged to more than 160,000, and more than 2.1 million people have been infected so far. With over 16 million people left unemployed in the USA alone, the world is under a major economic and health crisis – something the generation Z, the boomers and the millennials are witnessing for the very first time and it is affecting us all. The current pandemic of Coronavirus is increasing and the world’s top priority is to flatten the curve.

While the news of the pandemic is being received every passing day, people are somehow getting used to staying indoors. But about four months from today, the debate on whether COVID-19 is man-made or natural was the talk of the town for months.

When the conspiracy theorists came up with concepts that accused China of manufacturing a virus which would enable the country to reign supreme, a war of words between the scientists and the conspiracy theorists sprung up.

While the scientists and the doctors had scientific evidence and proof to back their stance, the conspiracy theorists too had logical premises to prove that COVID-19 is not natural. Slowly and gradually these debates changed into powwows and before we knew it, everybody started publishing everything online.

It was only when Google prohibited people from publishing their opinions and what they believe in, did these blogs with brand-new opinions stop being published. The world couldn’t stand fake information and myths during such unprecedented times.

Below are some myths about the COVID-19 that shall be debunked in this article. These pointers will also confirm whether COVID-19 is man-made or natural.

1. Higher temperature leads to the mitigation of COVID-19 cases:

The first and the foremost myth to surface the internet was about the increasing temperature. It was believed that the temperature above 25C prevents one from being infected. Now, the most interesting thing is that people assumed this virus to be man-made. Like fabrics are kept under the Sun for any kind of germs to perish, people believed the COVID-19 to work the same way.

However, this myth has long been debunked because had it been the case, it would have been confirmed that COVID-19 was the result of man-made mutations.

2. Alcohol Sanitizers Protect Hands From the Virus so Alcohol Should Kill COVID-19:

Another myth that to surface right after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic was about drinking alcohol. Since scientists and doctors around the world suggested washing one’s hands for a minimum of 20 seconds with an alcohol soap or an alcohol sanitizer, it was assumed that drinking alcohol killed the virus in an infected person’s body.

Well, if the virus was man-made, the alcohol drinking technique would have probably worked; however, belonging to the SARS and MERS family, there were barely any chances of this virus being intentionally manufactured. So, this myth had been debunked a long while back.

3. Bill Gates’ TEDx Talk Proves that COVID-19 is Man-Made:

Bill Gates’ TED talk about our broken health system and the foreseen health challenges back in 2015 started doing rounds on social media right after the news of the virus broke out. Bits and pieces and the snippets of the talk became viral and the opportunist conspiracy theorists put forward their claims of supporting the intended manufacturing of the virus.

If Gates’ talk is considered a strong premise to support the argument of the virus being man-made, then there is a huge fallacy in the argument because COVID-19 belongs to SARS and MERS viruses which also belong to the CoronaVirus family. These viruses too resulted in respiratory diseases, hence this myth was also debunked.

4. Viruses Do Not Have a Cure, So Washing Hands With a Sanitizer Won’t Help Because COVID-19 is a Virus:

This is one of the many myths that did rounds due to which many people stopped washing their hands because they thought that since the virus did not have a cure, there was no use of alcohol sanitizers as well. This myth was instantly debunked because there is no correlation between a virus’s medication and its prevention.

Alcohol sanitizers or soaps are used as a means of prevention and not as a means of medication. Although there is no instant cure but there is a treatment. And, Bill, if you use that alcohol sanitizer, you won’t have to spend your insurance money on your deteriorating health.

5. Do Not Let Houseflies Break Into Your House Because They Transmit COVID-19:

Another myth to do rounds concerned houseflies. It was believed that when a housefly is around an infected person and when it reaches you, it transmits the virus in you. This myth was debunked because there is no such evidence that confirms that houseflies are a source of COVID-19 transmission.

The droplets coming from a person’s mouth or nose are, for sure, the prime reason for the spread of the virus. Also, touching the places that an infected person touched and then not washing the hands afterward also lead to infection.

It is indeed hard to believe but there is going to be a major paradigm shift. It is about time we realized that such pandemics are our upcoming future and now is the time to react – by enhancing our health-care systems, improving our diets, spending more and more revenue on global healthcare.

No, COVID-19 is not a man-made respiratory disease. It is spread through animals which is an indication that wet-markets are harmful for our environment. Moreover, these are testing times and perhaps a warning for us to look around us and see that it takes just the flu to put the whole world under the lockdown. Our world is going to change not because it should but because it must.