Ebola is wreaking havoc across northwest Africa and has even entered our borders. Yet, the sad truth is many people still do not even believe this is happening or they believe it’s caused by witchcraft. 

For those who do accept the epidemic, there is a small fraction that believe  hoax “cures” have been spread all over social media. Here is just a list of the many conspiracies that have arisen in lieu of the humanitarian disaster in Africa. 

1) The disease is caused by witchcraft. Tribal groups in Africa tend to be exceptionally superstitious when it comes to situations they do not understand. Ebola is one of them. We know that this outbreak is caused by a virus, which spreads through contact. 

The biggest problem with these superstitions is that they affect the government, which can further complicate the problem.

2) This is simply the wrath of God. Most Africans living in this area are devoutly religious and some local pastors have come out and stated this is simply a way for God to show his anger against the gays, atheists and other non-Christians. 

As I stated above, the disease is caused by a virus, not an angry God or witch. 

3) Some conspiracy theorists think this is a bio-weapon used by the “New World Order” to control the population. This is a pretty absurd claim. If this were true, the “New World Order” would have shut these conspiracy theorists down easily. 

4) There is no such thing as Ebola. A few months ago an alternative news site published an article in which an individual from Africa stated there was no Ebola and the west was just conducting tests or using the fake outbreak to receive money. 

As we all can see on our TVs, the outbreak is very real. The most dangerous thing about this is that many people in Africa do believe the lies of this man, worsening the containment issue that is already present since those who do not accept that Ebola is real will not report infections or deaths.

5) Ebola zombies. Many people all over the world believe a zombie apocalypse will happen and have bought guns, knives, food stores etc. They even believe this is the virus to do it. There are two problems with this claim. 

Firstly, when someone is infected with Ebola on a serious level, it can be difficult to determine who is dead. Secondly, zombies cannot exist; bugs and bacteria would eat away at the bodies long before they could do any harm. Now I’m not hating on zombies completely. I do like a good zombie movie or two, but some people take it too seriously.

Fake cures

1) Bathing and drinking salt water will keep you from getting sick. The belief is that the salt water will dry out the virus and kill it. Salt water will kill you by drying you out if you drink enough of it.

2) Drinking bleach. I saw this one on Facebook a few weeks back and it shocks me that anyone would actually do this, but I was proven wrong. To date, more people have died from this cure than the Ebola virus here in the USA. 

3) Fake drugs. As of right now, there is no cure for Ebola but there are experimental vaccine trials. Many holistic medicine “doctors” are coming out and stating that the CDC and FDA don’t want people to be cured and that the scientists are making everyone sick (which is absurd to say the least). 

The holistic doctors claim taking certain herbs can cure cure Ebola. If it were that easy then we would have a cure already. To be fair, there are a lot of herbs with helpful chemicals in them, but none for Ebola. 

With all the photographs, videos, and news castings on the Ebola outbreak, it is a shocking revelation that there are still individuals in the world that will stop at nothing to upend the efforts of health care workers attempting to contain the infection or upend the cure efforts of researchers. 

These are the people we meet every day that lack the ability to critically think through situations and just accept what is told to them. They lack scientific literacy. 

In the end these individuals do not last long. Natural selection is still occuring and these people are usually the first to go. All I can ask of the reader is, would those who dedicate their lives to saving others attempt to infect and kill those they wish to save?