A new conspiracy theory is circulating on Truth Social: that the ongoing bird flu outbreak is secretly a tool designed to rig the 2024 election in President Joe Biden's favor.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a new subtype of the H5N1 avian flu in migratory birds has recently spread to cattle and chickens, with 136 dairy herds and 97 million poultry being affected in the U.S.
Human cases of H5N1 have been reported in India, China, Australia, and Mexico, where a 59-year-old with underlying health issues died after contracting bird flu.
While there are only four reported human cases in the U.S., all of which followed contact with cows or chickens, scientists have expressed concerns about gaps in monitoring and a potential pandemic "unfolding in slow motion."
Now, those concerns are devolving into a new conspiracy theory among some right-wingers who have dubbed the outbreak a "hoax."
The rhetoric mirrors some of the conspiracies espoused during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—that the virus was likewise a hoax or at least no worse than the flu. And some COVID skeptics-turned-bird flu skeptics are already hyping ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine—medications that were touted by conservatives as alternative cures for COVID—as treatment for bird flu.
During the COVID pandemic, some right-wingers theorized the pandemic was a tool used to rig the presidential election by creating a need for mail-in ballots and absentee voting—which have long been the center of some right-wingers' false widespread election fraud conspiracies.
That same conspiracy is being recycled for bird flu, especially given Biden's recent stumbles.
"Look out November, bird flu pandemic, mail in voting, Joe Biden second term," wrote one Truth Social user on Tuesday.
"OMG so they’re pushing the next potential pandemic so Sleepy Joe can campaign from his basement, so we’re too scared to go out to vote in public, hence they can overwhelm the system with illegal drop boxes and improper methods of ballot harvesting?" reads a separate conspiracy-ladden comment. "Well, two can play at this game this time! Your subterfuge will not work this time because we’re onto your tricks now! Fool us once and shame on you, fool us twice and shame on us. WE WON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN!!!"
Trump recently launched a mail-in ballot initiative called "Swamp the Vote."
Someone else posted that if Biden remains the Democratic nominee, he will likely lose in a landslide, prompting "desperate communist thugs do desperate things."
"WW3...civil war...deadly Bird Flu pandemic...terrible BLM-like riots, murder, looting, burning across USA by Democrat's army of 20 to 30 million illegal foreign invaders...sabotage by Chinese military-age males...waves of terror attacks by Hamas/Hezbollah inside USA...China invades Taiwan...EMP attack on USA that results in martial law...assassination attempt on Trump," the account continued. "Expect the worst."
Other Truth Social users spotlit the U.S. government's recent decision to pay Moderna $176 million to accelerate the development of a vaccine that could treat bird flu in humans as part of their conspiracy.
"Here we go with Biden giving the Maderma 176 million for the MRNA, bird flu vaccine when we don’t have the bird flu out here," one person said. "He’s got to do something to close down for the country again before the election so he can steal it again!"
And a separate user offered an even more outlandish theory: that the U.S. plans to "release a bird flu bioweapon before the November election."
"This act would allow the Biden administration to declare a state of emergency, implement lockdowns, & roll out Bill Gates’ new bird flu vaccine," the account wrote, alleging their information came from the Kremlin. (The Daily Dot found no record of Russia alleging such a plot.)
"Non-compliant citizens, they claim, would be sent to newly constructed secret detention facilities across all 50 states," the account continues to claim, baselessly adding that any vaccines for bird flu are "really bioweapons; intended to shorten the lives of all people who take these new shots!"
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