The first coronavirus case was officially registered in Wuhan in China less than a year ago and that quite a short period was marked by numerous events and global changes. Since the adoption of the restrictive measures introduced to prevent the spreading of coronavirus and the protests against these measures, then the game of great power rivalry and the race to find the Covid-19 vaccine, the world has been facing the spreading of numerous conspiracy theories and narratives reaching the inconceivable popularity.
After a short pause and due to the current affairs – elections and government change both in Montenegro and the USA, it is evident that numerous news portals from Serbia are turning again to the coronavirus conspiracy theories and spreading the already familiar narratives as well as creating the new content.
Another theory after the U.S. election
Soon after the candidate of Democrats, Joe Biden had won the U.S. election, the Pfizer Company announced that early results from ongoing Phase III trials showed that their vaccine was 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections. That coincidence was used to launch a conspiracy theory that the virus was made so that the outgoing President Donald Trump would be ousted. The news portal Republika (Serbia) was among the first to spread that theory in its text headlined END OF CORONAVIRUS! Pandemic was made to OUST TRUMP!
The text states that the sole goal of creating coronavirus is not to oust Trump but to establish the world government that would dictate the politics to other countries. The outgoing U.S. President was presented as an initiator of positive changes in the USA and the world, and according to this news portal, he was targeted so that the USA would remain the evil imperia and not become a part of some new system. One of the DF leaders Nebojsa Medojevic spread the theory on coronavirus and the ousting of Trump on his Twitter account, which was republished by numerous news portals from Serbia.
Orthodoxy targeted again
According to the news portal Pravda, coronavirus represents the biological poison and the war against Orthodoxy. Analyst Sasa Borojevic finds it suspicious that many SPC priests (Serbian Orthodox Church) have died from coronavirus lately, and states that the genocide against the Orthodox leaders is in progress. He points out that all the SPC priests (who were diagnosed with coronavirus or died due to the infection consequences) had similar attitudes on a lot of issues – they were opposing Kosovo independence, supporting deceased Metropolitan Amfilohije in his fight against the then regime, etc. Borojevic concludes that it is unusual that not a single bishop, a Catholic priest, or Pope himself has been infected. At the same time, he forgets the fact that numerous SPC priests were infected after the Metropolitan Amfilohiije’s funeral in Podgorica when the massive breach of epidemiological measures had occurred.
At the same time, the news portal Nacionalist is reviving the famous narrative on the invasion of the Holy Communion during the coronavirus pandemic. A section from the book written by Bishop of Backa Dr. Irinej Bulovic entitled Holly Communion: Source of health or disease was presented in the text. It is emphasized that perceiving the shared-spoon Holy Communion as dangerous and infectious is completely misplaced and meaningless since the Holy Communion is a cure of immortality, and as such, it cannot be a source or cause of a disease, infection, or death. Bishop Bulovic also claims that behind fake concerns about the alleged spreading of the infection through Holly Communion lays the intention of some to ban the Holy Communion itself, which represents the abolition of human rights that the same individuals are tirelessly fighting for.
In the same context, it is important to mention a statement of the Prime Minister-designate of the new Government of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapic. While appearing on the TV show Načisto, he emphasized that Holy Communion is a special moment for each believer and that the one who has faith will not be infected during Holly Communion.
Another example of the famous narrative on the church persecution during coronavirus occurred after the interrogation of Bishop Kiril Bojovic, priest Dalibor Milakovic and parish priest Branko Vujacic due to liturgy and seven-day commemoration to the Metropolitan Amfilohije on November 8 in the Cathedral church of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica. It is a fact that the clergymen were interrogated since it was estimated that the measures of the National Coordination Body of Montenegro were not complied with. However, the Serbian media characterized this act as a persecution of the Church by Milo’s administration, a new attack on the SPC in Montenegro, and the continuation of Milo’s invasion of the church.
Srbin.info leader in conspiracy theories
The news portal Srbin.info is launching again the narrative on coronavirus as the biggest hoax in history, republishing the words of the Canadian pathologist Roger Hodkinson that it is outrageous to lock down the whole society due to another severe influenza. Hodkinson adds that keeping the distance is as useless as the masks since there is no proof for their effectiveness while he assessed the PCR tests as unreliable.
Srbin.info published the narrative that our lives would be significantly controlled by the technology due to the pandemic, stating that three different smartphone applications (financed by Rockefeller and Clinton foundations) would control each aspect of human life after the pandemic. A couple of days later, they published a translated interview of Olga Chetverikova, director of the Center for Geopolitics for the Russian Svobodnaya Pressa where she emphasized that the world was ahead of the digital concentration camp.
Srbin.info is known for its anti-vaxxer narrative; therefore, the issue of the coronavirus vaccine is frequently present on this news portal. In one of the texts, writer Vladimir Dimitrijevic states that the pharmaceutical mafia is offering super-powerful vaccines against coronavirus and that the large-scale infodemic was planned in order to make the billions of people get vaccinated. On the other hand, Dr. Alek Racic thinks that it is impossible to make a vaccine against coronavirus due to the fact that it is not only one type of virus (author’s comment: but a huge number of mutations).