Data collected by Google appears to show that people are confusing the deadly coronavirus with Corona beer.
Google searches for “corona beer virus” and “beer virus” have seen a spike recently as the actual coronavirus outbreak continues to spread.
Over the last 30 days, interest in the term “beer virus” came mostly from users in Idaho, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, while “corona beer virus” was searched the most by those in Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Texas.
The Mexican beer, of course, has nothing to do with the deadly virus that originated in Wuhan, China. The producer of Corona, Constellation Brands, Inc., has not publicly commented on the confusion surrounding its alcoholic beverage.
Thankfully, not everyone is confusing the health issue with the beer. Most searches concerning the issue are for “coronavirus symptoms” as well as “What is coronavirus?” and “Is coronavirus deadly?”
Global search interest for “coronavirus symptoms” has spiked +1,050% this week. 😷 Here are the top searched questions in the past 24 hours.#coronavirus #GoogleTrends pic.twitter.com/bPVsL3hCYW
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) January 21, 2020
But that hasn’t stopped misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding coronavirus from spreading on social media. Some users on apps like TikTok are even creating videos in which they falsely claim to have contracted the disease in order to receive views.
Some prominent conspiracy theorists are even going as far as to claim that drinking bleach can protect oneself from the outbreak. As should be obvious, this is not true and is extremely dangerous.
Current numbers show that there are more than 6,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, while 132 people have died from the disease in China.
READ MORE:
- Conspiracy theorists push coronavirus misinformation on TikTok
- TikTok user pretending to be lab technician who has contracted coronavirus
- AI beat the CDC to the punch on coronavirus warnings
H/T Fox News