Weeding through the conspiracies.

Well, hi! If you told me in February I would be back from Liberia, in Boston, working at home while SARS-COV2 wreaks havoc around the globe, I would have given you major side eyes, but here we are. I’ve been working from home about 6 weeks now, mostly doing some data entry with a little bit of analytics thrown in, and a lot of wondering what the future will be like, not just for myself but anyone working in global health and international development.

While I hate that the pandemic pulled me from my field site early, where I was just getting comfortable and learning so much from my patients and colleagues, the switch up of big countries like the U.S. fumbling through the realities of this pandemic while places like Liberia hit the ground running, years of experience with the Ebola epidemic in tow, has been an interesting and refreshing change in the narrative. Not that anyone has the perfect response down (I’m convinced we won’t know what that looks like without some degree of hindsight and reflection,) but it was about time for Westerners to eat some humble pie and realize we have as much to learn from our partners in underserved parts of the world as we do to offer.

There is a lot that is bad about this pandemic (hi, stating the obvious here!) From the little things like not knowing when we’ll be able to hug our loved ones, to the big things like the much worse impact on black communities and the poor, to the plain and simple fact that this virus has killed more a quarter of a million people (see WHO’s latest situation report for more alarming numbers.)

But to me one of the scariest aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic is the misinformation circulating online. Maybe not even the misinformation itself, but the sheer speed at which the conspiracy theories, pseudo-truths and totally false allegations have made their way to social media. Even as patients died gasping for air in overcrowded hospitals in Queens, Facebook experts were calling into question the gravity of the situation, incorrectly crunching mortality rates then spreading the information like wildfire to their social media followers. Information comes out so quickly that it must be extremely difficult as a lay person to know what is and isn’t reliable information. I really do feel for the public on this one, especially those without a background in medicine and research.

Things reached a head late this week with the plandemic video. I was planning to ignore it until it started circulating in a private email chain with family members in the medical field, some of who decided to partially defend the video in the name of censorship and the right to free speech. Americans have always embraced our rights to do and say what we want, when we want, often to a fault (see: vaccinal refusal, or the shooting of a black man going for a jog by armed civilians.) We fight for the right to say and do what we feel is best without government interference (if you’re the right kind of citizen, that is. A conversation for another day.) To live and let live. But what happens when your voice and your circulation of false information endangers the health and wellbeing of others? When your choice not to wear a mask, not to vaccinate, endangers your 65 year old neighbor with diabetes, your newborn niece or nephew, or just the unlucky person you happen to pass by in the grocery store?

I thought about watching the video just to break it down piece by piece. I chose not to because a. it’s 26 minutes and life is short/too precious to waste time on listening to information that sounded incredibly suspect just from the title b. there’s a long and detailed about page that tells me what I need to know and c. several physicians and specialists have already written some great responses. I’ve included them below. Please read them. Some are admittedly more inflammatory than others. If you think or thought at any point that Plandemic was a plausible reality, I ‘ll try my best not to judge you. These are frightening times, and there is a weird comfort in latching on to ‘answers’ like the ones provided in this video, strange and incredulous as they may be.

https://www.npr.org/2020/05/08/852451652/seen-plandemic-we-take-a-close-look-at-the-viral-conspiracy-video-s-claims Great breakdown of the major allegations of the video, put out by NPR. All responses carefully cited.

https://www.facebook.com/jenniferkastenmd/posts/a-response-to-videos-including-plandemic-by-judy-mikovits-phd-on-the-origins-of-/133429318310015/ One of the best, most well-written responses in my opinion. She sticks to facts and avoids inflammatory language that may generate an emotional reaction that stops you from reading. Well cited with reliable sources.

https://respectfulinsolence.com/2020/05/06/judy-mikovits-pandemic/ The first response I saw to the video. Slightly inflammatory. I admit I along with many pediatricians/physicians who have been responding to vaccine hesitancy for several years now do find it strenuous and sometimes tiring to find ourselves in the same arguments over and over again as we work so hard to protect our patients and our families. But this is an excellent piece with citations for every counter-argument. It sticks to the facts.

https://instrumentofmercy.com/2020/05/07/why-your-christian-friends-and-family-members-are-so-easily-fooled-by-conspiracy-theories/?fbclid=IwAR1hkFgPo_zjOAEjmkB_GVGSm_WhWnAJ3ZOx-EXcCmoZWK3f-1HuE9hhGdk Probably the most inflammatory. I am a Christian, and I have also seen a pattern of Christians (not all, but a handful) I am friends with on Facebook, posting conspiracy theory content more frequently than connections from other parts of my life. Skip the intro and dive in at the section titled ‘Why we all love a good conspiracy theory.’ Some really great psychology and logic behind why we as humans are intrigued by these theories and how we can think critically through them.

https://theconversation.com/is-this-study-legit-5-questions-to-ask-when-reading-news-stories-of-medical-research-117836 Lastly, a great read on how to differentiate between good and bad scientific studies. While not directly related to the Plandemic video, a lack of knowledge about science writing and how to critique research articles leaves anyone vulnerable to misinterpreting data, science and facts. I will fully admit that scientific papers can be hard to read and interpret.

I hope these responses to the Plandemic video are helpful to you. No offense meant in any way. While I am happy to answer questions and have healthy discussions, I am not interested in debating this video so please don’t comment or message me with comebacks as to why I’m wrong or the video is correct. I’m not changing my view on this one and if you aren’t open to thinking differently about these issues this isn’t the place for you.

Stay safe everyone,