Editor:
As if COVID-19 isn’t a serious enough threat, another pandemic circulating and increasing the risk of contagion is found in the spread of misinformation about the virus and all manner of conspiracy theories about its transmission.
This secondary pandemic is flourishing in the fertile compost of social media, via the Internet. Its most potent expression is found in homespun videos commonly featuring a self-appointed and charismatic “guardian of the galaxy” revealing previously-suppressed information about the COVID-19 virus and its spread. This messaging sculpts a counter-narrative to what health-care professionals and scientific experts are telling and advising us, and it inevitably goads its audience, subtly or directly, to rise up in insurrection. None of the claims are based in peer-reviewed science, just opinions from a cadre of delusionists, some of whom call the virus a hoax.
This has assuredly contributed to demonstrations arising in the U.S. and some Canadian locations, where people are gathering and proclaiming their new knowledge of COVID-19-related conspiracies with near-religious zeal.
This misinformation plague is also circulating on the Sunshine Coast by residents who may mean well, but are also undermining guidance from our health-care experts. Most of the people I know spreading bogus information have little to no expertise in professional health care or immunology to even start to evaluate the claims they are sharing. That makes it a mystery as to why they continue doing this, but it also amplifies a real risk that COVID-19 may continue spreading in our communities and vulnerable populations.
Having some background as a working scientist (not biological sciences), and a science journalist and educator, I can confirm that professional science doesn’t always get everything right. But for the duration of this pandemic, I’m going to continue taking my cues from professionals who rely on peer-reviewed science research and robust dialogue for their answers, and questions. They’ve more than earned our trust.
Michael Maser, Elphinstone
