A new conspiracy virus swept through social networks as a hurricane: users discussed a fragment of a Chinese map, where cities and countries in the region of 40 degrees north latitude were united with a red line. Since no one can read the Chinese characters on the map, the citizens turned on the deductive method and easily guessed that this was a coronavirus. What else can the Chinese write about? Then the most astute realized that they had gotten into their hands a fragment of a secret (well, what else!) Map of the spread of the coronavirus. Analysts of popular Telegram channels reveled in their sagacity building the coronavirus "death belt" along the line: Wuhan - France - Italy - Iran - South Korea - Japan - Seattle - Washington - New York. Isn't it strange that the territories most affected by the coronavirus are located at the same latitude,did they ask? As a famous television character says in such cases: “Coincidence? I don't think so!"
Great ferment of minds began. The news began to live its own life, acquiring comments and authoritative expert opinions. It was even commented on by one of the State Duma deputies in the sense that a certain temperature regime is needed for the spread of a new infection. However, Gennady Onishchenko, who got through to our political observer Alexander Gamov, immediately doubted the plausibility of the conspiracy theory about the “sneezing forties”: “This version has nothing to do with either science or epidemiology!”
A new conspiracy virus swept through social networks as a hurricane: users discussed a fragment of a Chinese map, where cities and countries in the region of 40 degrees north latitude were united with a red line.
Then we decided to look at the original source. Thanks to the Internet search virtuosos working at kp.ru, a Chinese site was found that gave birth to this map. Yandex-Translator helped to understand the Chinese literacy and the riddle, which excited the minds of millions of users, received an extremely simple and banal explanation. A Chinese entertainment portal (gossip about stars, advice on healthy lifestyles, etc.) has made a selection of … mysterious places located in the region of 30 degrees north latitude (but on the map itself, illustrating the material, for some reason, the latitude is 40 degrees). This guide has nothing to do with coronavirus. It tells about mystical sights: the Bermuda Triangle and its Japanese counterpart, the Sea of Demons, a magical forest in the USA, where gravity supposedly does not work, mysterious places in China,where the great Yangtze River dries up …
Thus, the apocalypse in the coronavirus "death belt" is canceled. At least until couch analysts find a new gem in the dung of social media.
YAROSLAV KOROBATOV
