[welfare]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/c...nada-1.5542890

Respondents were presented with six conspiracy theories and asked if they believe any of them. According to Marie-Eve Carignan, an associate professor at the University of Sherbrooke and one of the co-authors of the study, at least one in 10 respondents believed at least one of the six theories.


She cautioned that the findings of the study are preliminary, and that team will have the results of a survey of 1,500 Canadians two weeks from now. Eventually their work will expand to include six countries.

Carignan said the six theories were:

-My government is hiding important information about coronavirus.
-Coronavirus was intentionally made in a lab.
-Coronavirus was manufactured in a lab by mistake.
-The pharmaceutical industry is involved in the spread of the coronavirus.
-Coronavirus medication already exists.
-There's a link between 5G technology and the coronavirus.

One of the most popular conspiracy theories of the pandemic is that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 was genetically engineered in a laboratory, possibly as a biological weapon. While just over half of those surveyed said they believe the virus occurred naturally, nearly a third said they believe it was created in a lab.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soci...avirus-chinese

The first person known to have been infected by the Wuhan coronavirus had never visited the city’s seafood market – regarded as the epicentre of the outbreak – according to Chinese researchers, who also called for extra precautions against airborne transmission of the disease between humans.
The researchers, seven of whom work at Wuhan’s Jinyintan hospital, designated for patients with the illness, revealed on Friday in The Lancet medical journal that symptoms of the new disease were first reported on December 1 – much earlier than the Wuhan government’s initial announcement on December 31 of 27 cases of the pneumonia-like infection.
According to the report, the first patient had no exposure to the Huanan seafood market which was shut down on January 1 over fears – later confirmed – that the new virus was linked to its trade in wild animals. The researchers added that none of the patient’s family had developed fever or any respiratory symptoms. There was also no epidemiological link between the first patient and the later cases, they found.