As confirmed deaths from the coronavirus approach 500, it shows no signs of slowing down.

America is evacuating people from Wuhan, the epicentre of China’s deadly coronavirus outbreak, and there are an estimated 11 million people in China’s Hubei province on lockdown, which has been the case for a while now.

In the northern province of Inner Mongolia, more than 1 600 kilometres from Wuhan, people are terrified as drones police people into wearing masks.

You can track the real-time spread of the virus here, and you should, because the live map that you’ll find there was created by a reputable source – Johns Hopkins.

Unfortunately, if you search #coronavirus without some serious filters in place, you could be confronted with this:

That horse-headed idiot up there is one of the many people who are using #coronavirus to increase the visibility of their posts, up their ‘likes’, and increase their followers.

Over to The Independent:

Currently, the hashtag boasts more than 199,000 posts, and while many are directly related to the deadly disease, others are coming under fire for using the illness to attract attention to their extravagant lifestyles.

Let’s look at a few examples of the bottom feeders trying to up their game:

This person actually asks people to ignore the hashtags, so they know they’re doing something wrong:

It’s not just regular folks trying to cash in on the suffering of others. YouTuber Logan Paul shared a photo of himself and some models wearing gas masks and…

Actually, see for yourself:

What a champion. The girl in the front is a nice touch. I’m sure the families of everyone who has died will really appreciate that.

If you’re struggling to place him, Logan Paul is the same guy who recently went up against fellow YouTuber Olajide “KSI” Olatunji in the boxing ring. 

Elsewhere, American video maker Steven Divish shared a photo of himself posing in a street wearing a black face mask, red jacket and pink Nike bumbag alongside the caption “Vibe check”.

And here’s Dina, from Miami, where there are zero confirmed cases of coronavirus:

If you want to check out their profiles, you’ll have to Google them. I refuse to support this madness by including links.

This isn’t the first time that influencers have tried to cash in on the suffering of others. When the TV series Chernobyl was popular, they flocked to the exclusion zone like flies, to photograph themselves in various states of undress.

I think I speak for everyone when I say:

Please, stop.

[source:independent]