'Corona beer virus' searches surge as coronavirus spreads

As the coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, a lot of misinformation about the virus seems to be spreading as well.

According to USA Today, recent Google search trends suggest a lot of people believe that Corona beer is somehow involved or associated with coronavirus because of its name. To clarify, the two are unrelated: Coronavirus is a pneumonia-like illness that has sickened thousands worldwide; Corona beer is a pale lager from Mexico.

A surge in searches for "corona beer virus" and "beer virus" have taken place up in recent weeks as more and more news about the coronavirus comes out.

In the United States specifically, Google Trends calculated that "beer virus" was the more popular search term. Hawaii, New Mexico and Kansas were the top three states where residents were searching "beer virus" the most, while South Carolina, Colorado and Arizona were searching "corona beer virus," reported USA Today.

On Jan. 21, Google Trends tweeted that searches for "coronavirus" had increased over 1,000 percent over the course of the week. The top Googled questions pertaining to coronavirus included whether it was deadly, how to prevent contracting it and where it came from.

NBC reported on Jan. 28 that there have been over 5,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in China and several hundred more worldwide, as health officials struggle to contain it from spreading further. Wuhan has been on lockdown since Jan. 23 and construction workers have been working quickly to build a new 1,000-bed hospital in the city, aiming to be completed by Feb. 3.

Coronavirus symptoms are flu-like, starting with a fever and turning into a cough and shortness of breath. There is no vaccine or cure as of now.