Chemtrails in the skies of Indonesia: are they conspiracies to cause prolonged COVID-19?

In Indonesia, there is currently a hot discussion regarding chemtrails appearing in the skies in several cities. Many people attribute this to conspiracy theories, according to which these chemtrails cause the omicron-type of coronavirus disease 2019 (B.1.1.529). Through this paper, we hope that Indonesian citizens be able to think more positively and maintain their mental and physical health.

Dear editor,

Through this article, we would like to provide a response to the last article which discusses coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is tailor-made for populist governments and actions to distribute counterfeit medical information and conspiracy hypotheses, thereby keeping citizens off balance. Discussions related to conspiracy hypotheses like this are also becoming a hot topic in Indonesia. Recently, various social media have been buzzing about the existence of chemtrails in the Indonesian skies. Not only in Jakarta, it turns out that quite a few other areas have experienced the same thing.

Chemtrail is a conspiracy theory which states that the government or others are involved in a covert program to spread toxic chemicals into the atmosphere using airplanes. The conspiracy theorists state that the existence of chemtrail can be proven by the presence of white traces in the sky that appear after an airplane passes. They believe that the white trail contains toxic chemicals that are used for various purposes, such as controlling human population, controlling thoughts or spreading disease. In this case, many believe that this chemtrail was deliberately used by the government to increase the number of people infected with COVID-19, especially the omicron type (B.1.1.529). This was followed by many people experiencing fever, body aches, cough, flu, diarrhea and itching after the chemtrail was seen. However, the media in Indonesia have explained that this is a hoax. Aviation experts also explain that the appearance of white trails in the sky after an airplane passes is a common phenomenon called condensation trail.

Regardless of whether these chemtrails are true or not, some Indonesians are certainly currently facing a situation which makes them full of fear and anxiety, and this can trigger the emergence of prolonged ‘irrational beliefs’, which certainly can lead to worse mental health. With mental health getting worse like this, physical health will worsen too because the body’s immunity will decrease. This will actually result in more and more people being exposed to COVID-19 because the transmission process is fast for those with low immunity.

We must support each other to maintain mental health so that we can increase herd immunity. Let’s return to our family spirit together with the philosophy of ‘Bhinneka Tunggal Ika’, that at this time we must rise up, support each other and always pray to God so that this pandemic will end soon.

Funding

The authors declared no funding was received for this paper.

Conflict of interest

The author declares no conflict of interest in this paper.