ECU professor discusses COVID-19 conspiracies following book release

East Carolina University Associate Professor in the English Department, Andrea Kitta, who has a speciality in medicine, belief, and the supernatural discusses the unexpected correlation between conspiracies surrounding COVID-19 and her newly released book titled “The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore.”

In the book, she said she wrote about contagion, contamination and folklore and the meanings behind them, but did not think the pandemic would soon follow the publication.

“It’s kind of funny a lot my friends and colleagues are telling me ‘you’re clearly psychic' because so much of what I said in the book is actually happening right now in real time but that’s because this stuff has always happened,” Kitta said.

The COVID-19 pandemic has followed all of the typical things seen when there is an outbreak of any disease Kitta said. She said she was lucky her book came out in the fall even while its release date was originally supposed to be in 2018, however, she said this was not how she wanted her research to become relevant.

The one thing she said she became most concerned about was how it affects people. She said she asked herself what people may feel and experience because contagions tend to bring out the best and worst in people, Kitta said.

“We look for a patient zero or someone to blame for this. We tend to get upset about outsiders and start to worry about them and then we start to realize the outsiders are actually us and we’re the problem so that makes us even more freaked out,” Kitta said.

Contagions definitely bring out the worst in people especially when it comes to racism, according to Kitta. She said she worries about this a lot because it has been seen in the news and it has brought about anti-asian sentiment because the virus is thought to have come from China. Kitta said that doesn’t necessarily mean it came from China because it could have come from anywhere.

All of these narratives, Kitta said, have come around about people eating bats or this is a huge conspiracy about the Chinese or Russian government out to get the US or the US out to get them. She said these narratives demonize other people and are excuses to blame someone even though it is a result of our naturally close contact with animals.

“Some of my favorite conspiracy theories are (the ones about the Earth healing) because they are sort of pure and are the ones about all of the animals returning to places because we all want to believe that, don't we? I would like to think that the Earth is healing and that dolphins are returning to the Venice canals but those are not true even though I’d like to think so,” Kitta said.

It goes to show, Kitta said, that not all conspiracy theories have to be bad but it goes to show that people do hold hope and that something good can come out of all of this. She said there is an environmental impact to everyone staying home but there will also be an environmental impact when everyone goes back to work.

Kitta said that conspiracies are seen on both sides, good and bad. It highlights the good that people want to come out of this pandemic but also highlights the bad conspiracies. These bad ones are often harmful and if said in the wrong way or to the wrong person can be offensive, according to Kitta.

“We see these conspiracies that this was a virus created in a lab being used by governments to do something terrible to other people or groups of people. I’ve heard everything from trying to kill off old people to various ethinic groups to pretty much everything including the 5G,” Kitta said.

The big part of conspiracies are the ones who might believe what they shouldn't, she said. Some people don’t believe this virus is real because hospitals are empty. These people can go out and spread this virus because they aren’t understanding what an asymptomatic carrier is, according to Kitta. She said it’s not just about one person, she said, but everyone that one person can come into contact with and who they come into contact with.

Household items like bleach are common during this time to keep everything clean because Kitta said people like the idea of something they have in the house that will fix everything. She said it was the act of doing something to feel better and by all means if that is bleaching the countertop she said to do it. As long as people weren’t going out everyday to buy bleach she said feeding into mass hysteria like with toilet paper.

“I don’t know why we’re so fixated on toilet paper but it has become this thing that like acquiring it somehow makes things better or it makes you feel better but I don’t why it isn’t soap,” Kitta said.

Senior public health major Summer Webb said the biggest conspiracy she has heard over the past weeks has been over 5G towers and people thinking they’re spreading the virus. She said that people have been burning down some of the towers in the UK due to this conspiracy.

“5G is the next generation of internet and mobile data speeds, so speeds, but it’s supposed to be much faster than 4G but most places don’t have the infrastructure for it,” Webb said.

It is unknown to Webb where the conspiracy started but said it was due to news articles being shared the wrong way or celebrities in general saying 5G was unhealthy for the human body. However, she said there hasn’t been enough research on 5G and the human body. She said she thinks that since 5G is new and emerging at the same time as COVID-19 it might have led to a possible correlation.

Although some conspiracies may not always turn out to be true, it is still recommended to stay updated on COVID-19 and to visit the CDC website or Pitt County health department website.