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

Ever-growing influence of social media and AI means such ideas spreading at faster rates than before, experts say Hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks carry with them familiar attendants in the US: extreme conspiracy theories about a planned pandemic, or “plandemic”, designed to upend midterms elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas. Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and poses a “very hig...

By Edward Helmore