The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease is overwhelming resources, economies and countries around the world. Millions of people have been infected and hundreds of thousands have succumbed to the virus. Research regarding the coronavirus pandemic is published every day. However, there is limited discourse regarding societal perception. Thus, this paper examines blame attribution concerning the origin and propagation of the coronavirus crisis according to public perception. Specifically, data were extracted from the social media platform Twitter concerning the coronavirus during the early stages of the outbreak and further investigated using thematic analysis. The findings revealed the public predominantly blames national governments for the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, the results documented the explosion of conspiracy theories among social media users regarding the virus’ origin. In the early stages of the pandemic, the blame tendency was most frequent to conspiracy theories and restriction of information from the government, whilst in the later months, responsibility had shifted to political leaders and the media. The findings indicate an emerging government mistrust that may result in disregard of preventive health behaviours and the amplification of conspiracy theories, and an evolving dynamic of blame. This study argues for a transparent, continuing dialogue between governments and the public to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

冠状病毒 (COVID-19) 疾病的爆发使世界各地的资源、经济和国家不堪重负。数百万人被感染，数十万人死于该病毒。有关冠状病毒大流行的研究每天都会发布。然而，关于社会认知的讨论却很有限。因此，本文根据公众的看法，探讨了冠状病毒危机的起源和传播的责任归属。具体来说，我们从社交媒体平台 Twitter 中提取了有关冠状病毒爆发早期阶段的数据，并使用主题分析进行了进一步调查。调查结果显示，公众主要将冠状病毒大流行归咎于各国政府。此外，结果还记录了社交媒体用户关于病毒起源的阴谋论的爆发。在大流行的早期阶段，最常见的指责倾向是阴谋论和政府对信息的限制，而在后来的几个月里，责任已转移到政治领导人和媒体身上。研究结果表明，政府正在出现的不信任感可能会导致人们忽视预防性健康行为、阴谋论的放大以及不断演变的指责动态。这项研究主张政府和公众之间应进行透明、持续的对话，以阻止冠状病毒的传播。