From the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, conspiracy theories about the origin and scale of the disease were spread on online platforms. Among these were the false claim that the virus was part of a Chinese "covert biological weapons programme", and a baseless claim that a Canadian-Chinese spy team had sent coronavirus to Wuhan.
The claim that the virus was man-made has been pushed by numerous conspiracy groups on Facebook, obscure Twitter accounts and even found its way on to primetime Russian state TV. And months into the outbreak, not only have these theories not faded away, but new, unverified claims have been promoted by government officials, senior politicians and media outlets in China and the US.
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