Are viruses real?

One of the interesting aspects of being part of NZ Skeptics is that we often get contacted by people to espouse views and theories that diverge from the mainstream, evidence-based views on things.

The latest for us is claims from a New Zealand-based person who claims that viruses aren't real - that they're a hoax. You can take a look at the site promoting this nonsense. (http://thevirushoax.net/)

I'm not going to name this person as the communication quickly degenerated into threats of legal action.

From the communications I've had with this person it seems that they've latched on to some outliers in the scientific community who promote pseudoscience around viruses - Dr Stefan Lanka is the main culprit, though the site also lists a psychiatrist, medical doctor (who also promotes homeopathy and anthroposophical medicine), and, scraping the bottom of the barrel, a chiropractor.

In researching the topic, I've come across articles that actually show pictures of viruses through electron microscopes. The image above is of the COVID-19 virus, where the spikes can clearly be seen.

It seems that the person behind this works in the IT industry. I've encountered these types of people before - and they're common in pseudoscience. There's the Salem Hypothesis which suggests an apparent correlation between those who work as engineers and them being drawn to pseudoscientific beliefs such as creationism, crank magnetism and climate change denial. Perhaps we can add virus denial to the list. Though perhaps the Dunning Kruger effect explains things well too.

Our friend Siouxsie Wiles wrote up a piece explaining how COVID deniers have latched onto Koch's postulates.

As we often say, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. If you're going to take on the whole scientific discipline of virology, you'd better have some good evidence to back up your claims.

## Coming soon...

We're excited to announce the combined NZ and Australian Skeptics Conference/Skepticon. We're holding this in person (COVID willing!) in **Wellington** and **Sydney** simultaneously on the weekend of **19th - 21st November**.

There will also be the option to purchase a livestream ticket.

The conference will feature speakers from both sides of the Tasman as well as some exciting international speakers.

We're seeking registrations of interest so that we can gauge interest.

Please visit the registration of interest page (hosted on the Australian Skeptics site) at the following link:

## **[Register interest](https://www.skepticon.org.au/)**