Kazakhstan has a celebrity problem. Against a backdrop of surging Covid-19 infection rates, some of the country’s most famous people, influencers and sports stars have become super-spreaders of coronavirus disinformation.

“They are intentionally poisoning people, they are spraying the virus from helicopters across the regions — my mom and relatives have seen them do it,” Kazakh rapper Say Mo told her 634,000 Instagram followers this month.

Kuat Khamitov, a mixed martial arts fighter with 300,000 followers on Instagram, has made similar assertions. In one July video, which has been watched half a million times, he said, “They are sending airplanes, helicopters, tanks so that we will all get sick, end up in the hospital and start to believe this disease exists.” 

Another singer, Dilnaz Akhmadiyeva blamed the United States for spreading coronavirus via a network of laboratories in the region. She has 856,000 Instagram followers, a huge number in a country of just over 18 million people.