Bedbug panic was stoked by Russia, says France(lemonde.fr)
lemonde.fr
Bedbug panic was stoked by Russia, says France
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/03/01/bedbug-panic-was-stoked-by-russia-says-france_6575870_7.html
4 comments
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Bedbugs were spotted in touristic area of France since many years and were slowly growing. Bedbugs were already a real problem and in 2023 became a real concern Mainly due to olympics games coming.
But there was absolutely no reason to "panic", just to be concerned and fight the problem.
The reason of the panic was social media. And manipulation of social media is just one step ahead.
Any rumors swirling around that things aren't perfect and getting better every day are nothing but Russian misinformation!
At the height of this panic, there was talk of the bugs spreading to the UK, and that is was prevalent on tourist-heavy rail lines coming from France.
I used to take the train that goes through Gatwick airport up to Victoria, to go to work every day. Within a couple of days of seeing the headlines, I spotted several bedbugs on the train, including one time, one was just sitting on my bicep. They were definitely bedbugs, before you start questioning it, I managed to rake a photo of the one on my arm before smacking it off and changing seats.
Coincidence, maybe. But I've never seen a bedbug before and never seen them after. So I'm not completely willing to write this off as a conspiracy theory.