Shafin, my other friend from the city’s other side, sent me a funny Instagram reel with a concerned emoji. It is a cut scene from Avengers: Endgame, where two sides labelled as ‘Immune System’ and ‘Mysterious September Sickness’ got into a full-scale combat.

Within seconds, he sent me a fresh tragicomedy reel about how someone wanted to start their journey to get fit from September but was grappled by the sickness instantly. Both of the reels fetched thousands of likes and comments, testament to the September sickness taking over the world under its feet with no respect to the borders.

It is normal in Bangladesh to get sick during the autumn due to the change in weather, the night temperature drops like a heavy ball, and plants release pollen and mould that irritate the nasal airways. But when this sickness got international status, memories of the COVID pandemic flashed, so we wondered, had the pandemic come back to pay its visit?

Thousands of people posted such reels with comments filled with reports of many having sore throat, sinus inflammation, cough or headache. Some gave emotional support through memes to show solidarity from one part of the world to another.

But in reality, the September Sickness is not a new hitman assigned to knock on everyone’s door. This seasonal sickness was there before, but since many geographically dispersed people started posting about it on social media simultaneously, it changed the whole perception. Apparently, the idea of coincidence was abandoned.

People from different parts of the world reported similar symptoms, but clearly, not everyone lives under the same climate. Someone living in Australia might have these symptoms due to influenza, while someone residing in Bangladesh had an allergic reaction to pollen. It is absolutely a coincidence in a world where billions inhabit and many are reported sick over time. The upper-neck symptoms can happen in multiple regions at the same time, but they occur due to various reasons such as different triggers, weather conditions, dominant strains or activity levels.

The social media algorithm, yet again, fooled us to believe there is a correlation and causation between events as if they are occurring purposefully. When random events occur within the same timeframe, our brain immediately searches for a connection between the dots, solves the puzzle, drills through any clustered pattern. The persuasive evidence of people sharing the similar experience appeared in the reels and comments, so we fed these to our brain, which desperately looked for confirmation.

The mysterious part is not about what is happening within our body but what is actually happening in the feed. So, the next time you see another set of viral reels circulating due to the fuel of shared experiences, do let the idea of coincidence live in your head rent-free.