Conspiracy theories flourish in an
atmosphere of fear and ignorance.
They’re like fungi, spewing spores that
fall on us when we’re feeling small and inconsequential. Or especially
aggrieved. A pandemic creates their ideal medium for growth.
Spreading such inventions is a human
failing. That’s why the Bible cautions: “You shall not spread a false report.
You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness.” (Exodus
23:1)
Oh, but we do it anyway. Some of us. More
of us than we, ourselves, may realize.
The internet has exploded lately with
conspiracies about the origin of COVID-19. These run from the absurd to the
semi-plausible, if you don’t look deeper.
They attempt to smear with doubt the people
we trust most. I’m thinking of Dr. Anthony Fauci, an experienced voice of calm
and reason and scientific information in the midst of the viral storm.
I’m thinking of Bill Gates, too, widely
admired for the extraordinary work his foundation does to alleviate human
misery around the world.
Each of these men stand at the forefront of
medical efforts to understand the scope of the danger we’re in, and to find
ways to combat it.
Yet concerted attempts are made to
undermine their efforts with falsehoods. And those falsehoods are being spread
by ordinary people on social media.
People who are fearful, like many of us, unsure
whom to trust.
And other people, too, of a bristling
ignorance. Angry at what they don’t understand, and wrapped in longing for
simplistic answers, instead of the slippery complexity of a brand new virus.
Conspiracy theories, whether left or right,
can be seductive. Once you allow the first deadly spore into your conscious
mind, it will multiply according to a design that exists only within itself,
quite separately from any other reality.
Like a virus does, in fact.
The only “vaccine” against conspiracy-think
is knowledge. Verifiable knowledge that’s at everyone’s fingertips, if we take
the time to look for sources and read critically. (That means outside the
thread of links that support the conspiracy.)
I have spent a great deal of time in recent
weeks researching what is known about COVID-19 and its fellow coronaviruses. I
subscribe to a daily compendium of articles from medical journals related to
the virus, in addition to other well-respected and verifiable sources. Science
is accretive. New information arrives each day. And as we learn more, we
revised the picture of what we know. It’s like turning a pencil sketch into a
painting. Understanding is a work in progress.
The half-truths, no-truths and innuendo
that are woven together by shady operators to comprise the most prevalent
conspiracy theories are a disgrace. They are designed to promote various
agendas not related to your or my good health.
Run them down for yourself. Make sure that
you look at a variety of unrelated sources to evaluate your information. Don’t
swallow Laura Ingraham or the Washington Post headlines in one,
undifferentiated gulp. (The actual articles in the Post are far more balanced,
by the way.) Political axes continue to be honed, even now, when we should be
pulling together.
As for those who spread misinformation
about subjects that affect me and those whom I love, I have a few questions:
What are you trying to do? What are you
trying to gain? Who are you working to benefit? I’d really like the answers.
You seem to want communities to unravel.
You want children and unsuspecting adults to die from preventable illness. You
want to topple rational, experienced leaders and replace them with what—a leaderless
massing of people? For what purpose?
Your spreading of lies about Dr. Fauci and
Mr. Gates will cause some well-meaning people to resist the COVID-19 vaccine
when it is developed. And that will undermine the herd immunity we need for
life to resume a more complete normality. Herd immunity is basic science, which
you scoff at.
If you’re successful in sowing doubt your
result will further imperil my husband and me as we are imperiled now in our
self-isolation. You will cause people to die.
Why? Why would you do that?
[Titled "Conspiracy Theories," this post ran as my column in the Fayette County Record, April 24, 2020.]
