Nearly Thirty Percent Of Americans Believe The Coronavirus Was Made In A Lab: Poll
Source: The Hill
Nearly 3 out of 10 Americans believe an unsubstantiated claim that the coronavirus -- which has infected more than 1.8 million people and killed more than 116,000 worldwide -- was made in a lab, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center.
The poll found that as 43 percent of Americans say the coronavirus most likely came about naturally, 29 percent say it most likely was created in a lab. Of that 29 percent, 23 percent say it is most likely the current strain of coronavirus was developed intentionally in a lab, while 6 percent say it was most likely made accidentally in a lab. A quarter of participants said they aren't sure where the virus came from. The survey was conducted from March 10-16.
The poll also found Republicans and Republican-leaning independents are more likely than Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents to say the coronavirus was created in a lab -- 37 percent to 21 percent respectively. Meanwhile, 39 percent of conservative Republicans said the coronavirus was created in a lab.
Younger people were also more likely than older adults to say the virus originated in a lab. The poll found 35 percent of adults ages 18-29 say the virus was developed in a lab, compared with 21 percent of adults 65 and older. Meanwhile, 19 percent of adults with a bachelor's degree or more education say the coronavirus was made in a lab, while 35 percent of those with a high school diploma or less education believe so...
Read more: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/longevity/492522-almost-three-in-ten-americans-believe-the-coronavirus
The rumor that the coronavirus came from a lab originated from unverified social media accounts and hasnt been supported by any credible evidence, according to CNN.
As the coronavirus outbreak turned into a full-blown public health crisis, misinformation and conspiracy theories about the disease began to swirl -- so much so it prompted the World Health Organization to call it an "infodemic."
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-how-one-particular-coronavirus-myth-went-viral/
Many Putin operations seem to emerge from Bulgaria.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)BComplex
(8,029 posts)AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)The crazy conspiracy theory is that it was *MADE* in a lab. (context: a bio weapon.)
There *is* a possibility it was being studied in a lab and escaped. These viruses are natural, and that area has had problems with swine and bat related coronaviruses in the past, so it makes sense they'd be studying them.
If our own CDC was studying potential seasonal flu strains to figure out which one would be a problem that year, and it escaped the lab, you would not say it was *MADE* in a lab.
BComplex
(8,029 posts)You're right.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)to foment the conspiracy theories highlighted in the OP. There was even a time I used to read ZeroHedge. Not anymore.
marble falls
(57,063 posts)DENVERPOPS
(8,804 posts)I was just going to ask if anyone wonders WHICH 30%
rpannier
(24,329 posts)Maybe it has some mystic properties that will make them less gullible
The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)It pops up in many places.
It is derived from the portion of the vote Alan Keyes garnered when running against Mr. Obama for Senator in Illinois. That was 27%. This is taken as an indicator of the bedrock strength of purblind idiocy among the voting public, there being no reason besides that why anyone should want to see Alan Keyes in public office. Because the contest was between two black men, some maintain the constant is 'pure', ie untainted by racist motivation, and so an expression of pure idiocy. I am not so sure of this, but see the sense in that proposition....
marble falls
(57,063 posts)mopinko
(70,070 posts)sounds like a valid measure.
science into cooperation in animals shows that a flock/school/herd can carry approx 20% freeloaders before the protective influence of the group breaks down.
i suspect that adding the niceties of laws and rules and norms, that number goes up.
i was thinking it pushed it to about 30%. i will accept 27% as established by stats.
many thanks, sir.
(good to see you back. i resented your return w/o me there to welcome you more than any other day while i was in jail.)
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)They've always been there since The Revolution & before.
marble falls
(57,063 posts)PoindexterOglethorpe
(25,839 posts)I keep on forgetting how large a portion of the population are ignorant idiots.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)I'm not sure about the 30%, but it is high enough to be a cause of concern in India, as reported by the Guardian.
The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)Said 'allowance' being so gross as to constitute positive incitement from on high.
It is a damnable situation, and the most likely precursor of a mass expulsion or even a genocide looming in the world today.
chowder66
(9,066 posts)sfstaxprep
(9,998 posts)SunSeeker
(51,550 posts)C Moon
(12,212 posts)lunasun
(21,646 posts)Or maybe just plain old trumpers who think Obama was born in Kenya
Bigredhunk
(1,349 posts)DFW
(54,330 posts)One of the numbers was called "Monster Goose Rhymes," one of which was:
There was a mad scientist, he lived in a lab
He had twenty foot monsters laid out on a slab
But don't be afraid, there's no reason to scream
It's the Transylvania Globetrotters basketball team
I get the impression that 3 out of 10 Americans today would believe it.
truthisfreedom
(23,141 posts)Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
You know, there's absolutely no logic to designing a virus that affects every single country the same way. It's not a useful weapon. It's like setting a wildfire when everything is flammable.
Blues Heron
(5,931 posts)Nacht Owl
(66 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)Wish he'd kept the same writers.
Btw, Harry Belafonte is still alive! He's 93! 👍
Woodwizard
(841 posts)Of people that believe in conspiracies, in general, our local county facebook page is full of them. Qanon, flat earth a lot of Q people also believe the earth is flat. The age group of them seems to be in the middle 20's on average. they post lots of youtube videos to prove their points............
If I was to use the county facebook page as a social metric I would be packing my bags.
mwb970
(11,356 posts)bucolic_frolic
(43,122 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Or is there a Venn diagram that would show what the intersection is.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)llmart
(15,536 posts)She's one of my nieces and she tried to convince her mother (my sister) that this was created in a lab. She's been an anti-vaxxer for quite some time. She's also been very gullible most of her life. Believe it or not she does have a college degree, but one that didn't require her to take any science of course.
You cannot convince these types that they're wrong. They get emboldened by their special group of social media idiots.
Bengus81
(6,931 posts)And....that building has never had a basement but that's not material to MAGOTS.
Katinfl
(156 posts)In China to eliminate the male population. She believed it because the person who told her was in the medical field and she assumed it was correct. I walked away in disbelief but this is how it is with a lot of people.
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)and a little paranoid.
LiberalArkie
(15,708 posts)is contagious before the person ever gets sick, if they ever do get sick. It is more than likely.
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)LiberalArkie
(15,708 posts)The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)... to causation
jberryhill could have been more explicit on his point. I would have preferred that to speculating on it.
But to the supposed point: Concerns about a problem are not evidence that the problem caused the virus outbreak.
A possibility is not automatically "more than likely" or "almost certainly", phrases or similar that LiberalArkie has used.
Correlation is not causation.
But it is a common leap that people make who are not careful and precise about their reasoning.
The Magistrate
(95,244 posts)I wish I could have as much confidence in the gentleman's sound judgement as you do.
The posting, which appears elsewhere even in this thread, could be taken to suggest there is reliable report supporting belief the thing was concocted in a laboratory. All the Washington Post article indicates is that two years ago, concern was expressed about containment protocols. It cannot even be taken for clear evidence containment protocols were still poor this year. Things may well have tightened up in the interim. There is no particular reason to suppose the Chinese government takes an especially slap-dash attitude in such matters. Reputable scientific reports of research into the ultimate origins of the virus are not at present giving uniform conclusions, and experts have suggested several possibilities, making some of the conclusions presented in that article on the subject not quite certainties.
LiberalArkie
(15,708 posts)When working in a bio lab, there is always a possibility of a person making a mistake. Usually the lab are far away from people. The lab in Wuhan is located in the Wuhan hospital.
None of the early people who got sick had been to the market.
I still believe an accident. Things happen. If this had been a virus (like in the moves) where people got sick immediately then it would not have spread, but since it is possible to spread without being sick it was able to spread outside the lab very easily.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)I still surmise there was an accidental breach at one of them.
LiberalArkie
(15,708 posts)History
The Institute was founded in 1956 as the Wuhan Microbiology Laboratory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). In 1961, it became the South China Institute of Microbiology, and in 1962 was renamed Wuhan Microbiology Institute. In 1970, it became the Microbiology Institute of Hubei Province when the Hubei Commission of Science and Technology took over the administration. In June 1978, it was returned to the CAS and renamed Wuhan Institute of Virology.[4]
In 2015, the National Bio-safety Laboratory was completed at a cost of 300 million yuan ($44 million) at the Institute in collaboration with French engineers from Lyon, and was the first biosafety level 4 (BSL4) laboratory to be built in mainland China.[2][5] The laboratory took over a decade to complete from its conception in 2003, and scientists such as U.S. molecular biologist Richard H. Ebright expressed concern of previous escapes of the SARS virus at Chinese laboratories in Beijing, and the pace and scale of China's plans for expansion into BSL4 laboratories.[2] The Laboratory has strong ties to the Galveston National Laboratory in the University of Texas.[6] In 2020, Ebright called the Institute a "world-class research institution that does world-class research in virology and immunology".[6]
From Wikipedia
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,988 posts)You are not logical.
You are indulging in magical thinking.
It is possible that a Russian agent may have seeded a Russian virus in Wuhan because the facility there would be a great cover.
That is only a possibility.
One of many possibilities. Without evidence.
Return to rational thinking. A possibility does not equate to certainty or even to "more than likely". Without pertinent evidence, a possibility remains only a possibility.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(107,863 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)That's quite the accusation:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100213283372
still_one
(92,116 posts)highplainsdem
(48,959 posts)started months ago with RW media. But it's depressing that so many young adults under 30 fall for this nonsense.
samsingh
(17,594 posts)customerserviceguy
(25,183 posts)which China's autocratic rulers will not allow, rumors are bound to spring forth. It's the price that governments pay for being secretive.
70sEraVet
(3,483 posts)I've read about how during the middle ages, there would be some plague in a village and the inhabitants would go on a rampage, killing Jews. They suspected that Jews were poisoning the wells. And I would think, 'How ignorant. Thank goodness we live in an age of reason'.
dhill926
(16,335 posts)are now adults (in the temporal sense only)...
SWBTATTReg
(22,100 posts)war or kill a lot of us. Perhaps it is time to ignore the nice rules of society, and go dig up our brass knuckles? I'm getting sick and tired of these idiots. At least perhaps now they are finding out that the CV isn't being selective in picking its victims, and kills all equally without discrimination! Sad. Maybe this will wake up people, especially those who have bee sleeping on the sidelines?
Botany
(70,483 posts)n/t
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)Bayard
(22,038 posts)That's how my tRumper brother started. Then, he went to--it was created to bring down tRump and our economy. Now--are you wearing your mask and gloves? Don't forget your glasses, because it can infect you through your eyes.
Every once in awhile, we get into a knock-down-drag-out text battle on politics. But we love each other, and I know he'd do anything in the world for me--he's proven it time and again.
Haven't heard back yet if he'll vote for tRump again. He still gets his news from Fox. He hated Obama.
marieo1
(1,402 posts)I totally believe the virus came from a lab. I believe it was either accidental or intentional but I believe and will always believe it came from a lab, why not? Since DJT and a lot of his followers, people DJT selected, have been tested for the virus and not one of them have had it. I believe they know something the rest of us don't know!! I.E. a vaccine maybe!! Most of DJT's followers are vicious, mean-spirited, hateful people!! Of course, even if they knew they would deny it. They have learned that lesson well, all DJT does is deny any wrongdoing. They will go to any lengths to get rid of the rest of us.
Duppers
(28,117 posts)Most of what you've posted is Faux News propaganda. Just not the part about "followers are vicious, mean-spirited, hateful people!!"
Duppers
(28,117 posts)Last edited Tue Apr 14, 2020, 08:43 PM - Edit history (2)
I never watch it, but tuned in days ago, and caught them discussing this. The reason I tuned in was on a hunch that the source was Fox News.
I have neighbors espousing this unreasonable theory that it was created in a lab as a bioweapon in China.
marieo1
(1,402 posts)I am a very liberal democrat and have never watched Fox news in my life. I just happen to love nature, our forests, the sky, lakes , etc. It is hard for me to believe nature could create something as vicious as the coronavirus. I know there are hurricanes, tornados, floods, etc that take a lot of lives and are destructive but to me this seems different, like some a vicious, evil beast that is trying to devour our planet.
Duppers
(28,117 posts)I absolutely adore nature too but know soil can contain microbes that could kill me:
tetanus, anthrax, and botulism, for instance, exist naturally in nature.
Do you not realize that over the history of the world there have been many pandemics which took millions of lives - and most of these pandemics existed before there were ever human labs.
Read: https://www.livescience.com/worst-epidemics-and-pandemics-in-history.html
Woodwizard
(841 posts)Pisces
(5,599 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)Duppers
(28,117 posts)They have a big bad Boogeyman somewhere. They thrive on hate.