- People appear to be searching the internet to find out whether the beer Corona Extra is related to the deadly Wuhan coronavirus in China.
- Searches for “corona beer virus,” “beer virus,” and “beer coronavirus” have increased substantially worldwide since January 18, according to Google Trends.
- No, there is no connection between the beer and the virus that has so far killed more than 170 people and infected over 7,000.
People appear to be fretting that the Mexican beer Corona Extra is somehow linked to the deadly coronavirus outbreak in China that has killed more than 170 people.
Online searches for “corona beer virus,” “beer virus,” and “beer coronavirus” have increased substantially around the world since January 18, data from Google Trends shows.
A boom in similar search terms was first observed by Indy100 on Friday. Similar searches have risen since then.
From January 18 to January 26, searches for “corona beer virus” jumped 2,300% globally, Google Trends data shows.
Searches for “beer virus” jumped 744% in the same period, and searches for “beer coronavirus” jumped 3,233%.
The first reported case of the deadly coronavirus was December 8 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and the virus began receiving widespread media coverage this month.
Wuhan and several other Chinese cities have since been quarantined. As of Wednesday, 132 people have been killed and 6,000 infected.
Seventeen countries have reported cases of the coronavirus, including the US.
A Google Trends graph showing how global searches for the terms “corona beer virus,” “beer virus,” and “beer coronavirus” have spiked amid the outbreak. Google Trends
Cambodia and Denmark topped the list of places that saw a surge in searches for “Corona beer virus,” the data shows.
Search data from the US also shows people increasingly searching for the beer and the virus together.
A Google Trends map showing which states are searching for terms connecting the Wuhan coronavirus to the Corona beer. Google Trends
There is no connection between the beer and the virus.
The name coronavirus comes from the fact that under a microscope the virus has crown-like spikes protruding from it.
“Corōna” in Latin means crown, and modern romance languages follow suit: In Spanish, corona means crown, and Corona beer originated in Mexico.
In English, the anatomical term “corona” is used for body parts resembling a crown.
Corona Extra did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the apparent confusion.
This isn’t the first homonym involving a disease and a brand. According to The New York Times, during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, sales of the diet candy Ayds dropped approximately 50%.
The Wuhan virus has prompted numerous other false narratives. Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory have advocated drinking bleach to kill the coronavirus, The Daily Beast reported Tuesday.
By Bill Bostock @ Business Insider, Holly Secon contributed reporting to this post.