When You Post Disinformation
I have had some interesting interactions with others on Facebook about the COVID-19 pandemic. One example was a post shared by someone from a right-wing website that alleged that wearing masks was dangerous and did not afford any protection from COVID-19. I read the post (after taking an antiemetic). It drew heavily from the work of a retired neurosurgeon who now makes a living writing books about alternative medicine and nutrition (no idea what his credentials are in those subjects), writing for conservative websites, and serving as a visiting professor at Belhaven University in Mississippi. In the post he alleges that wearing a mask makes healthy people sick because they have headaches and that masks allow SARS-CoV-2 to back up in the nasal passages and make their way to the brain via the olfactory nerves.
Headaches are one of the commonest subjective complaints humans have. The scientific data implicating masks as the genesis of headaches are slim to none. Similarly there are no data that indicate the SARS-CoV-2 will infect the brain because inhaled virus cannot be exhaled when wearing a mask. Blaylock also says that masks produce hypoxia which will impair the immune system. Taken together this may sound awfully frightening to a lay person, especially because the writer has M.D. behind his name.
Sadly, what has occurred here is the spread of disinformation via social media. Facebook in particular seems to excel at the spread of disinformation. I think it is rare that most readers of Facebook posts have the science background to weed through a slickly formatted post and see its falsehoods. It is easier to accept this at face value than fact check the science, the author, and the source of the post. Please note that I am an M.D. but limit my opinions to areas where I have training and expertise. Infectious disease, epidemiology, and internal medicine are areas where I feel comfortable sorting through an article and figuring out what it does and does not mean. My expertise in neurosurgery is pretty much nil. Neither have I decided that I am an expert in alternative medicine as has Blaylock. As I have stated before, epistemic humility is important. Skepticism begins with being skeptical about what you yourself know and understand.
In any democracy the free flow of information is crucial and is protected by the First Amendment in the United States. In the digital age the free flow has become a torrent. Social media allows everyone to post anytime, anywhere, with little if any oversight. It is no small wonder that you can be overwhelmed with information that may or may not be true and may or may not be meant to influence a political or ideological position. Both Latin phrases apply here: Caveat emptor (buyer beware because what is presented may be false) and Caveat vendor (when you post or repost on social media, don’t post disinformation or propaganda). The mark of a responsible citizen in a democracy is getting it right both ways.
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