COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories

John Bodner is an associate professor of folklore in the social/cultural studies program at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland. He has conducted fieldwork among tree planters, street kids and illegal marijuana growers to document the relationship between marginalized communities, work, identity, crime, and tradition. Wendy Welch is the author or editor of six books and the executive director of the Graduate Medical Education Consortium of Southwest Virginia where she advocates for social justice and policy planning in equal measure. She lives in Wytheville, Virginia. Ian Brodie is the associate professor of folklore at Cape Breton University in Nova Scotia, Canada. President-Elect of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, he has served as President of the Folklore Studies Association of Canada. Anna Muldoon, a former Science Policy Advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, focuses on social responses to infectious disease, ranging from conspiracy narratives to religious history to fashion and fiction. She has published on a number of such issues. Donald Leech, an associate professor of history at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise, has published articles on the changes in the English urban society and economy in the 15th and 16th centuries as the Middle Ages merged into the modern era. He also wrote about the early process of enclosing and privatizing common lands as part of the same changes. Ashley Marshall serves as chief executive officer of a nonprofit organization. Through her work tackling systemic racism, oppression, and justice she has fought the impacts of conspiracy thinking, rumor, and legend that continue to perpetuate inequalities.

Table of Contents


Foreword by Anna Merlan

Introduction

One. Conspiracy Theory 101: A Primer

Two. The “Wuhan Virus”: A Cautionary Tale of Origin Conspiracy Theories

Three. Recycling White Power Rumors After the Black Death

Four. “But My Cousin Said”: Covid-19 and Black Communities

Five. Harmful Additives: Pre–and Pandemic ­Anti-Vaccination Thinking

Six. Apocalypse Now, or Later? End Times and the New World Order

Seven. QAnon, Pizzagate and the Pandemic

Eight. Waves of the Future or Waves of Oppression? 5G Fears

Nine. Drawing Lines in Shifting Sand: The ­Covid-19 Cartoons of Ben Garrison

Ten. When All Is Said—or Done: Examining Ourselves, Talking to Others

Acknowledgments

Author Biographies

Chapter Notes

References Cited

Index