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 midterm elections or push new vaccines or any one of a myriad of wild ideas.

Ebola, which the World Health Organization warned on Friday is spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, 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.