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From Our Own Correspondent - Ebola in the DRC: Fear and Conspiracy Theories - BBC Sounds

bbc.co.uk

When Ebola strikes a war-torn region, conspiracy theories fill the trust vacuum — and this BBC dispatch shows exactly how mistrust kills containment efforts faster than the virus spreads.

Social EpistemologyConspiracy Theory FormationTrust and Social CapitalRisk Perception Theory
From Our Own Correspondent - Ebola in the DRC: Fear and Conspiracy Theories - BBC Sounds

Theory Briefing

  • Ebola has re-emerged at the volatile border of North Kivu and Ituri provinces, where armed conflict erodes the institutional trust needed for outbreak control.
  • Local conspiracy theories about the pathogen's origin are spreading alongside the virus itself, a classic sign of an information vacuum in low-trust environments.
  • Research on past DRC outbreaks shows that belief in conspiracies directly undermines contact tracing and vaccination uptake, turning misinformation into a public-health multiplier.
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