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 high” risk at the national level. In the upside-down world of conspiracy theories it could be a bioweapon, a financial plot, or a scheme to extract national resources.