How Covid gives birth to conspiracy theories
I’m surprised when I see friends and colleagues reposting dubious claims about the coronavirus and the 5G network on social media. They are people who I know are otherwise rational, skeptical, questioning humans. So why do they fall for the 5G-virus story?
Then there’s the case of the celebrity chef and his amazing machine. It cures Covid19. This might sound like a rather ambitious claim from someone who has no science or medical credentials. It is. Pete Evans cooks food. He’s a cook. A chef. He deals in vegetables, meat, fish and frying pans. Not medical technology. That’s why he is coming under investigation by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for his nearly-$15,000 machine.
Well, it’s not actually his machine. He’s selling the thing. It is manufactured in the US by Advanced Biotechnologies. The company claims to be an “innovation leader within the emerging field of subtle energy revitalization platforms”. Whatever that means.
I have to disclose my bias here. I have for a long time been skeptical about the concept of the celebrity chef. Sure, they are accomplished in their work of cooking food, however they attain their celebrity status when the TV, advertising and book publishing industry gets hold of them and spins an aura of authority around them. The result is big viewer numbers to sell to advertisers on TV networks and heavy cookbooks joining the hundreds of others on groaning bookshop shelves.
Following widespread skepticism about Evan’s claims, the manufacturer of the BioCharger NG Subtle Energy Revitalization Platform issued a media release distancing itself from his claim. “The BioCharger NG is not a medical device, is not intended for use in the diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, in man or other animals”, the release states. Its recommendation for dealing with the virus is washing your hands, social distancing, wearing a mask, self-quarantine and consulting medical advice if suffering Covid19 sysmtoms.
The Australian Medical Association (AMA), a credible, national organisation representing doctors, tweeted their summation of the celebrity chef’s amazing curative machine: “This guy just doesn’t get it. Pete Evans is trying to sell a $15,000 fancy light machine to vulnerable and frightened people to protect them against #COVID_19.
He is not a doctor.
He is not a scientist.
He is a chef.”
An ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) News report quoted Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president, Harry Nespolo, who also took to Twitter: “A few months ago I advised anti-vaxxer/celebrity chef Pete Evans that he should stick to talking about ‘activated almonds’ and leave vaccinations alone. He’s at it again, this time on #COVID-19 and he needs to stop,” Dr Nespolo wrote.
It seems the AMA and the RACGP smelled a rat. So did the TGA, and is out to catch it.
Watch the words
As citizen journalists we exercise the skepticism necessary when confronted by claims such as that about the NG Subtle Energy Revitalization Platform. We know that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence (that advice from Carl Sagan).
The terms used by the company such as the name of the device: “BioCharger NG Subtle Energy Revitalization Platform”, and what it does: “optimise and improve potential health, wellness and athletic performance” should make us curious if not alarmed. So should Pete Evan’s recitation of that claim on his now-removed Instagram post.
The terms are a word salad, a combination of technical, authoritative-sounding words that amount to, well, to very little that is comprehensible. How does the device improve athletic performance? What does NG mean? How does it improve health? And what exactly is “subtle energy revitalisation? What is “subtle energy”? Like so many mumbo-jumbo-encased claims, what is missing is how it achieves all these seemingly miraculous benefits. We have to trust that the company and its agents, like Pete Evans, are telling the truth. We are left to believe it or not… maybe better not believe it.
Citizen journalists need to be skeptics
Skepticism is something citizen journalists can apply to the pervasive 5G-Covid scam.
Whether posted to deliberately mislead and misinform, or whether posted by well-meaning people to warn others of the supposed dangers of the wireless technology now being rolled out, misinformation is rife in our current Covid19 emergency. I was disappointed when people I know started reposting spurious claims about 5G and Covid19. I expected a more rational approach. It appears rationalism can be an optional extra.
Is the 5G-Covid issue spread by people with the malicious intent of sowing confusion? Does to come from people talking about medical things about which they have limited or no knowledge? Are people simply reposting what their friends post because, well, they are their friends and are trusted? Does it come from people trying to sell us something? Are Russia’s troll factories behind it, as they have been in intervening in the US elections, allegedly in the Brexit ballot and in Europe?
Was peoples’ reposting the 5G-Covid fake news merely confirmation bias at work? Posting things that agree with their attitudes and beliefs while ignoring those that don’t? Confirmation bias boosts our self-concept because it supports our belief that we are right.
If that is the reality we can thank the flood of anti-5G posts that have permeated social media since before the technology started to be deployed. RT, the Russian media organisation, has been implicated (and here) in that as well, according to the American Council on Science and Health, in anti-GMO and anti-fracking propaganda. According to RT’s critics, the aim is to spread fear and uncertainty among Western nation populations to advantage Russia’s strategic, economic and political goals. What it does is muddy the confusion that already exists around issues like the genetic modification of crops and farm animals where there are health, environmental and economic questions. RT turns the freedom of speech and media in democratic nations against those nations. It exploits situations where there are opposing public attitudes and enlarges them.
Fake news infects peoples’ brains like the virus infects their bodies. If they believe it and do not spread it around or act on it, their belief doesn’t matter. They are free to believe what they like if they don’t force those beliefs onto others. Sometimes, though, belief leads to action, such as anti-5G campaigners burning 5G towers in the UK.
Fake news is called that not because Donald Trump says it is, but because its creators intentionally spread lies. Such was the video which spread like a virus on social media of people in Wuhan, China, where Covid19 originated and spread from, allegedly pulling down a 5G tower. Thankfully, fact checking organisations revealed the deliberate misinformation as pre-Covid video of people in Hong Kong pulling down a surveillance camera tower.
The damage thoughtless reposting does
The problem with reposting claims unsupported by verifiable, repeatable evidence is that people either unquestioningly believe them because:
- they are posted by someone they know
- the claims sound credible
- people are gullible enough to believe what they read on social media without asking for evidence.
Beware. The gullible and the liars are at large.
Now more than ever during the Covid19 pandemic we need clear, science-based information about the most effective ways of responding to reduce the spread of the virus and protect ourselves, our families and friends. What we need is the social solidarity of staying home.
Asking enquiring questions
What can we do as citizen journalists when confronted by claims that appear too good to be true? Here’s a few questions to ask:
Who is making the claim and what is their track record?
- have they made similar claims before?
- were they true or false?
What do the perpetrators have to gain from spreading fake information?
- money? (are they trying to sell something, like a nearly-$15,000 BioCharger NG Subtle Energy Revitalization Platform machine, perhaps?)
- are they simply out to cause mischief?
- are they after power of some kind?
- are they seeking influence?
- are they seeking vengeance against some business, government, organisation or person
- are they ideologues trying to push their own political, social or economic agenda or that of others?
- are they working for a government at plausible-denial length to sow public doubt and weaken democratic institutions?
What qualifications, formal or informal, can they provide evidence of to give their claim some authority?
- are they expert in the field?
What evidence do they offer to support their claim?
- can it be verified by reputable sources?
- is it repeatable by third parties, as experiments should be?
Does the claim hold up to common sense and our own experience and knowledge?
- do the claims seem reasonable and likely?
- do they seem unreasonably and unlikely?
Have fact checking sites assessed the claims?
- do they say whether they are true or false or whether that are based on truth and misrepresent it?
Does the claim sound too good to be true?
- things that sound implausible usually are.
Question much. Question often.
Advanced Biotechnologies media release: https://biocharger.com/blog/press-release-april-10-2020/
The ABC’s science educator, Dr Karl, on the 5G conspiracy: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-08-28/is-5g-safe-dr-karl-radiation-explainer/11416070
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