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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Edward Helmore

Ebola and hantavirus outbreaks prompt raft of conspiracy theories in divided US

A healthcare worker in a blue gown and mask draws blood from a patient's arm in a clinical setting
A patient prepares to have blood drawn for a test at General Referral Hospital of Mongbwalu in eastern DRC this week. Photograph: Michel Lunanga/Getty Images

Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterm elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.

Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned on Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, poses a “very high” risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources.

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