No, the Coronavirus Doesn't Have Anything to Do with Corona Beer

As the deadly coronavirus continues to spread outside of China, people concerned about a potential outbreak are turning to Google for answers, and as USA Today points out, many seem to believe that the virus is somehow related to Corona beer. (We shouldn’t have to say this, but to be absolutely clear: it is not.)

Searches for the Mexican beer brand spiked on Google this week, along with the search terms “corona beer virus” and “beer virus.” According to Google Trends, 57 percent of the people in the United States who searched for one of those terms searched for “beer virus,” while 43 percent went for the more specific “corona beer virus.”

So, again, to be absolutely crystal-clear, the coronavirus is a mysterious illness that originated in Wuhan, China, with symptoms that include fever, cough and shortness of breath. The “Corona beer virus” is a dumb joke your drunk buddy is 100 percent going to make after he pukes and rallies at your Super Bowl party this weekend, but it is not an actual ailment.

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Bonnie Stiernberg

Bonnie Stiernberg is InsideHook’s Managing Editor. She was Music Editor at Paste Magazine for seven years, and she has written about music and pop culture for Rolling Stone, Glamour, Billboard, Vice and more.