Coronavirus Bat Soup Conspiracy Theory

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About

The Bat Soup Coronavirus Conspiracy Theory refers to a series of unsubstantiated claims that consuming bats or bat soup resulted in the creation of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. While some scientists believe that the virus could have started in bats, they have dismissed claims based on unrelated and older videos of bat consumption, as offensive and racist. As of April 2020, there is no conclusive evidence as to the origin of the virus and no evidence that it is linked to the consumption of bats.

Origin

While the exact origin of the conspiracy theory is unknown, Twitter user @Dystopia992 tweeted the earliest available reference to the connection between coronavirus and eating bats on January 22nd, 2020. In addition to posting a video of a full bat in a bowl of soup, they wrote, "Graphic Warning sign #ChinaPneumonia -- “Bat Soup” on Flag of China diners’ desk. #Wildlife animals hv ALWAYS been “delicacies” in #China, some even claim they can improve health & sex performance. Let’s NOT forget #Bats are reservoirs for <60 viruses. #coronavirus #Wuhan." The tweet received more than 4.7 million views, 2,400 likes and 2,100 retweets.

Graphic ⚠️
#ChinaPneumonia -- “Bat Soup” on 🇨🇳 diners’ desk.#Wildlife animals hv ALWAYS been “delicacies” in #China, some even claim they can improve health & sex performance.

Let’s NOT forget #Bats are reservoirs for <60 viruses.#coronavirus #Wuhanpic.twitter.com/Eg7QEUxrsz

— Dystopia - #StayHomeSaveLives (Dystopia992) January 22, 2020

Spread

Following the post, some media outlets and conspiracy theorists began elevating the still unverified links between bat soup and the virus. On January 23rd, the Daily Mail^[1] shared a video of a Douyin user 77maggie77 eating bat soup. However, their report contains no information about the link between consuming bats and the virus.

The following day, Foreign Policy^[2] magazine debunked the video. The video, in fact, was fillmed four years prior and outside of China. It was filmed in Palau, a small Pacific nation, where she filmed a video about the local delicacies. They wrote:

The video wasn’t set in Wuhan at all, where bat isn’t a delicacy. It wasn’t even from China. Instead it showed Wang Mengyun, the host of an online travel show, eating a dish in Palau, a Pacific island nation. Sampling the bat was simply an addition to the well-trodden cannon of adventurism and enthusiasm for unusual foods that numerous American chefs and travel hosts have shown in the past.

On February 7th, the vlogger, Wang Mengyun, later apologized for the video, following a series of threatening letters she received after the video went viral^[3]. She said, "Sorry everyone, I shouldn’t eat bats."

By mid-March 2020, there had still been no evidence that consuming bats had an correlation to the coronavirus. Additionally, according to Rolling Stone,^[4] "Survey data of Chinese diners from 2006 suggests that the practice of eating exotic animals became even less common following the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak, the source of which was believed to be bats (though researchers believe that the virus was actually passed to humans via palm civets, a type of large cat)."

They continue:

there is no evidence that eating bats was the source of the coronavirus outbreak; authorities have stated that many people who tested positive for COVID-19 did not have any contact with live animals prior to contracting the illness, and a report from the Journal of Medical Virology actually suggests that snakes may have been the cause of the infection. (Others suggest it was pangolins.)

Search Interest

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External References