I put this under 'politics' because I see the same thing happening now, only with the substitution of China for Germany in the conspiracy theories.

The following comes from a novel by Marilynn Robinson, "Gilead" where an old minister is writing a long rambling letter (in the edition I have 282 pages long), when he digresses into discussing the Spanish influenza.   It just sounded so up to date to me complete with conspiracy theories attacking the current enemy.   [Bold added by me]

People don't talk now about the Spanish influenza, but that was a terrible thing, and it struck just at the time of the Great War, just when we were getting involved in it. It killed the soldiers by the thousands, healthy men in the prime of their life, and then it spread into the rest of the population. It was like a war, it really was. One funeral after another, right here in Iowa. We lost so many young people. And we got off pretty lightly. People came to church wearing masks, if they came at all. They'd sit as far from each other as they could. There was talk that the Germans had caused it with some sort of secret weapon, and I think people wanted to believe that, because it saved them from reflecting on what other meaning it might have.