Pale lager or virus? The answer is seemingly self-explanatory, yet Google search trends would suggest otherwise. In an unfortunate case of word association, people are apparently confused by a presumed connection between the coronavirus and Corona beer.
Searches for “coronavirus symptoms” spiked more than 1,050 per cent last week, according to Google Trends .
Meanwhile, as Boing Boing reported in a post titled “No, coronavirus has nothing to do with Corona beer,” search interest in “corona beer virus,” “beer virus” and “beer coronavirus” has increased since Jan. 18. In the case of “corona beer virus,” searches have since surged by 2,300 per cent; interest in “beer coronavirus” has increased by 3,233 per cent.
Corona Extra, the best-selling Mexican beer in the world, has nothing to do with the coronavirus, just to get that out of the way. The names of the two disparate entities merely share the same origin: the Latin word corōna, which means “garland, crown.”
The coronavirus is so-named because of its spiky, crown-like shape. Corona beer on the other hand bears a crown on its label, which is a nod to the concrete crown on top of the Parish of Our Lady of Guadalupe in the Mexican town of Puerto Vallarta, according to Craft Beer and Brewing magazine.
People have been predominantly googling the connection between Corona beer and the virus — which has killed more than 130 people in China to date — in Canada and the U.S., Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and Western Europe.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
