Michael Abrahams | COVID-19 misinformation is hurting us

As I write this, I am grieving. Three days ago, I lost a colleague and friend to COVID-19. I had worked with Dr Lenworth Jackson for the past 15 years at the medical centre he operated. We worked in adjacent rooms and shared many patients and memorable moments. Not only that, but Lennie treated everyone in my household, including me, so he was also our family physician. He loved his job and was loved by many. Unfortunately, the very thing he loved to do ultimately led to his demise. He fell ill after being infected with the virus and was admitted to an intensive care unit, where he was placed on a ventilator, but never made it back out.

The following day, I called a dear friend of mine to wish her a happy birthday. I enquired about her well-being and she told me she had been stressed as she recently lost her brother to lung cancer. I expressed my heartfelt condolences. Losing a close family member like that is not easy, and I was saddened to hear of her loss. She then continued to say that COVID-19 was also stressing her out and that she was “so over it”. I asked her what she meant by her remark, and she told me that it is not a pandemic. I told her that it is, adding that my colleague, who she knew, succumbed to it just 24 hours earlier. But she quickly retorted, “and my brother died from lung cancer”, rubbishing my claim, while continuing to insist that we are not having a COVID-19 pandemic. I told her I was grieving and did not wish to engage in such a discussion at that time, but she persisted, and I felt compelled to terminate the call.

RATTLED

I felt somewhat rattled after the conversation. My friend’s lack of empathy during my grief was disappointing but, more importantly, our brief conversation served to highlight the fact that myself and other health workers are simultaneously fighting two enemies – the novel coronavirus and the deluge of misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding it. Misinformation simply refers to inaccurate information, while disinformation is false information that is deliberately spread to mislead others. So, we are fighting a viral pandemic and an infodemic.

The Internet is like a double-edged sword. It is a great source of useful information as well as misinformation and disinformation, too. We are facing a global crisis, and at a time like this respect for science is crucial. Scientists are human and are therefore not infallible. However, it is ludicrous to believe that you can do a few Google searches and read a couple of blogs, some by people with a minimal grasp of science, and believe you know enough to dismiss virologists, immunologists and epidemiologists with decades of experience and whose work has been published in respected peer-reviewed journals.

I am a medical practitioner. I have never studied economics. So, if I see research coming out of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), or the Economics Department of Harvard University, it would be arrogant of me to dismiss their findings, as if I know more about economics than they do.

The public spewing of COVID-19 misinformation is not only disturbing, but is also counterproductive and places our health at risk. These utterances only serve to embolden and enable those who are ignorant, and whose behaviours are barriers to the management of this plague. Examples of such erroneous declarations are seen all to often. For instance, recently I posted an article on COVID-19 on one of my social media pages. One of the first comments was by someone who declared, “COVID-19 KILLS NO ONE”. On another occasion, I posted an article on the value of wearing face masks. Again, the first comment was by someone who declared, “MASKS DO NOT WORK”.

To set the record straight, we are having a pandemic; COVID-19 kills people, and masks do help. A pandemic is simply a global outbreak of a disease, and that is what we are seeing now. We know that COVID-19 kills people because the clinical course of the infection has been intensively studied, and symptoms, signs, investigation and autopsy findings have been scrutinised, documented and correlated. And, there is overwhelming evidence that if EVERYONE wears a mask properly, in the appropriate environments, and practices regular handwashing/sanitising, respiratory hygiene and physical distancing, we can decrease not only the rates, but also the severity of COVID-19 infections.

Subsequent to Lennie’s admission and diagnosis, the staff at the medical centre have tested negative, but his death was a wake-up call to the reality of the danger we face on a daily basis. COVID-19 is real and must be taken seriously. This is not about fearmongering or impinging on people’s rights. This is about being humble, unselfish, disciplined and respecting science.

Michael Abrahams is an obstetrician and gynaecologist, social commentator, and human-rights advocate. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and michabe_1999@hotmail.com, or tweet @mikeyabrahams.