Myths, misconceptions, and conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19

image from Pixabay, adapted

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Last week, we focused on the science around COVID. Today, we’ve got pseudoscience in our cross-hairs. The misinformation, myths, science denial, and conspiracy theories that are put out by internet trolls and circulated through social media. Or which are simply a product of well-intentioned people who don’t have enough scientific training to be correct, but just enough to be dangerous: TV/radio news reporters and overly self-confident internet surfers.

Ivermectin is a perfect example of misinformed science. Pseudoscience actually. COVID anti-vaxxers have latched onto this compound, marketed as a de-worming treatment, because a small handful of scientific studies seem to have shown some beneficial effect. But those few studies have design flaws in them. On top of that, ten times as many studies have been done which show no useful effect with ivermectin, and even show harm being done. This is like someone trying to get you to invest in a strange new cryptocurrency, citing examples of people who have made tons of money on it, but when you look at the details, you notice that those people used some very questionable accounting practices, and many other investors have lost a ton of money on this new thing. Would you still buy?

And then there are the conspiracy theories … COVID and the vaccine developed against it both being used to take over the world, and the players behind it all range from Bill Gates, to various world governments and military organizations, to Satan himself. We look closely at the claims that COVID is a biological weapon created in a lab, and that medical doctors are being coerced to falsify death records in order to hide or inflate the problem. And the proposal that the best way out of this pandemic is to just let COVID sweep through the global population and let Darwin sort it all out.

As always, tell us what you think …

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Shelley Barlow & Kit Wisdom – Clinical Reflections