By Julie R Butler
For whatever reasons, trolls have been busy spreading all kinds of misinformation about the coronavirus, with the latest coronavirus hoax being the outrageous claim that the Chinese government is exterminating people who are ill with the disease. The correct info about coronavirus is out there, yet people who aren’t paying that much attention seem more than willing to jump to ridiculous conclusions.
Speaking of ridiculous conclusions, here’s something so absurd, I’ve got tears in my beers from so much laughing and crying at the same time. According to the folks at Vice, a disturbing number of people think coronavirus is related to Corona beer!
Corona as in Crown
Of course, coronavirus has absolutely nothing to do with Corona beer, beyond the coincidence of sharing the same word in their names. Corona can mean crown, halo, garland, or wreath, in both Spanish and Latin.
In the case of the beer, the corona in question is a crown that sits atop the slogan La Cerveza Mas Fina, implying that it’s fit for a king.
It’s part of a marketing strategy that’s been quite effective – maybe too effective, when the first thing that pops into the heads of many non-Spanish-speaking people across the globe when they hear mention of a scary new infección vírica is a bottle of their beer, perhaps with a lime wedge sticking out of the top.
Solar Coronas Gone Viral
As for the virus, its name comes from the way these chinchecitas minúsculas look when viewed through an electron microscope.
As you can see, the coronavirus has protrusions sticking out all around it that create the effect of a solar corona – the halo of plasma surrounding the sun that becomes visible to the naked eye for us humans here on la Tierra during total eclipses.
Love for Mexico in the Time of Coronavirus
Maybe we should actually be congratulating the marketing team at Cerveza Corona for causing so many people around the world to immediately think of their beer whenever the word corona comes up – even if it is in the context of a contagious disease.
According to Forbes, Corona is exported to over 120 countries and is the no. 1 imported beer in the United States, and the brand is worth US$10.1 billion.
Better yet, let us celebrate the fact that Mexican Entrepreneurship Knows No Bounds, as T-shirts with the slogan Ya me dio... el Corona Virus bring us a new way of saying that we’ve (once again?) drunk too much Cerveza Corona.
It all goes to show, once again, that México es Chingón. Mexicans have the amazing quality of being able to find humor in almost any situation – even if it’s a contagious disease. After all, this is the culture that celebrates Día de Muertos and is famous for poking fun at death, itself!
