UK Government Monitors Unbelievers Of The New COVID-19 Variant

Illustration (Unsplash / Prasesh Shiwakoti)

JAKARTA - The British government is reportedly monitoring social media to find the source of a conspiracy theory that says the new variant of COVID-19 is just a hoax. The country will note in an internal email (email) some public skepticism about the new variant of the corona virus.

Quoting Business Insider, the British Media Monitoring Unit (MMU) sent emails to politicians and civil servants containing what reports the government could submit. The unit is part of the Cabinet Office that informs the government's daily press strategy.

Later, the email was used as a reference for the British government in anticipation of the developing narrative. It's clear that tackling anti-vaccine sentiment and conspiracy theories about the new strain of COVID-19 rank high on that list of challenges.

In an email sent on December 20, for example, that day's communique summarized the social media reaction to the UK's prevalent "mutant" coronavirus, whose news broke out over the weekend.

Summarizing Facebook's response to a popular story about a new strain of coronavirus, the email stated: "Many don't care about the new variant, but some are more skeptical, claiming that a new variant is available and vaccine approval is suspicious time. Some suggest the new variant may be artificial. . "

The email did not say what action the government might take to dampen this sentiment. The conspiracy comes despite the UK Government's New and Developing Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) outlining the potential severity of the new variant.

Meanwhile, the British government also acknowledged that there was a 5,000 percent increase in searches related to a new variant of the COVID-19 virus. For example, searches on "how is the new variant more contagious", "why is the new variant more contagious", and "what is this new variant of COVID-19."

The new variant of COVID-19

The new variant of the coronavirus in Britain was first detected in September. As of November, about a quarter of the COVID-19 cases in London came from a new variant of the coronavirus. This number reached nearly two-thirds of cases in mid-December.

It is thought that the variant has attacked many patients in the UK or in countries with a lower ability to monitor the mutation of the coronavirus. This variant can be found throughout England, except Northern Ireland, but is highly concentrated in London, Southeast England and East England.

Data from Nextstrain, which monitors the genetic code of virus samples around the world, shows the cases in Denmark and Australia came from the UK. The Netherlands has also reported cases of COVID-19 from a new variant.