New outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola have triggered a familiar cascade of wild theories across American social media: that the diseases are bioweapons, financial schemes, vaccines designed to sway elections, or plots by Bill Gates and Israel. The Ebola spread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo now poses what the World Health Organization calls a "very high" national-level risk, while a hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the South Atlantic has killed three passengers and sickened at least eleven more.
What makes this moment different from past pandemics is the speed and reach. Social media platforms and AI-generated content are accelerating the spread of false narratives at unprecedented rates, experts say.
"This is very normal, and we should not be shocked that people are conspiracy theorizing," said Dr. Joseph Uscinski, associate professor of political science at the University of Miami and author of a new book examining conspiracy theories during the Black Death. "If people are paying attention to something, so are people who are conspiracy-minded, and they are going to interpret disease through that lens."
The pattern is not new. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, online posts claimed victims were turning into zombies. During Covid, similar theories blamed pharmaceutical companies and governments for orchestrating the pandemic. Now, with hantavirus and Ebola, the same playbook is being recycled with fresh urgency.
Right-wing outlets have been especially prolific. Gateway Pundit labeled the hantavirus outbreak "another plandemic" designed to "terrorize Americans and swing the midterms against President Trump." Mikki Willis, filmmaker of the widely-shared "Plandemic" documentary, has suggested authorities will attempt the same deception again. On his network, host Harrison Smith speculated about releasing a "super deadly virus" followed by a fake vaccine.
However, attributing all conspiracy thinking to one political side oversimplifies the phenomenon. Uscinski notes that conspiracy theories span the political spectrum, united not by partisan identity but by deep mistrust of institutional power. Anti-fluoridation movements in Portland and Florida, for example, oppose water fluoridation on opposite ideological grounds: one sees it as a capitalist plot, the other as communist overreach. The common thread is suspicion of government authority.
"The defining characteristic is not if they're left or right, but that they're raging conspiracy theorists," Uscinski said. "Wherever you find conspiracy-minded people, you'll find conspiracies."
The real cost of these theories may be slowing public health response when speed matters most. US efforts to contain the Ebola outbreak have been hampered by deep cuts to global public health funding, including dismantling of the US Agency for International Development and research cuts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio clashed with WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus over the agency's identification of the DRC outbreak, calling it "a little late."
Thomas Asbridge, a medieval historian and author of "The Black Death," draws parallels between current viral crises and the 14th-century plague. Both occurred during periods of financial instability and environmental stress. The Black Death accompanied the collapse of the Florentine gold-backed economy and the Little Ice Age. Today's pandemics coincide with the 2008 financial crisis and increasing human contact with zoonotic pathogens that jump from animals to people.
Confusion about transmission routes has plagued responses to both historical and modern outbreaks. Officials initially gave contradictory information about whether hantavirus spreads through rodent droppings or human-to-human contact. During Covid, messaging shifted on surface transmission, airborne spread, and social distance requirements. When official guidance wavers, conspiracy theorists fill the void with alternative explanations.
"We might be much slower to accept and respond appropriately to what's required," Asbridge said. "We're absolutely right to be alarmed and cautious about Ebola and hantavirus. Hopefully we will be lucky this century."
Author James Rodriguez: "The faster our information systems spread misinformation, the slower our public health response becomes, and that's the real emergency lurking beneath every outbreak."
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