Search For ‘Corona Beer Virus’ Spikes As People Confuse The Beer With The Deadly Outbreak

It’s a classic case of mistaken identity. As people are trying to educate themselves online about the new virus that’s spreading in China, the online popularity of its namesake beverage – Corona beer – has risen as well, perhaps due to confusion between the two. The surprising thing is that people have been increasingly using the even more confusing hybrid term “Corona beer virus” in their Google searches.

Worried Americans have been using Google to learn more about the coronavirus that Chinese authorities have been trying to contain. But many might have confused the deadly virus with the Mexican beer Corona Extra, according to Daily Mail.

In fact, Google searches for both phrases “corona beer” and “corona beer virus” in the U.S. spiked after it was confirmed last week that the infection has reached American soil. Data from Google Trends indicate that searches for both terms increased by more than 1,100 percent.

The publication speculated that people might have initially typed “corona” before Google’s auto-suggestion feature clicked into gear and provided people with the option of “beer” or “beer virus.” It must be noted that the coronavirus spreading in China has nothing to do with the alcoholic beverage from Mexico.

Based on Google Trends data, there were only five searches for the phrase “corona beer virus” on January 22. However, it spiked to at least 100 searches on January 29.

There are also variations based on location. Most searches over the past seven days for the phrase “corona beer virus” came from Hawaii, Washington, and California. Residents from Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico, however, prefer to use the phrase “beer virus” in their searches.

Internationally, the phrase “corona beer virus” was also used in Google searches from Australia, Cambodia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Sri Lanka. Aside from New Zealand, the four countries have confirmed cases of coronavirus infections.

It is yet unclear if the spike in Google searches also resulted in a corresponding rise in sales of the beer. At the moment, Corona Extra has not yet commented on the noted trend.

Coronavirus got its name from the Latin word corona which means a crown or a garland. When viewed under a microscope, one can see tiny crown-like spikes.