Dr. Michael Kitchell: COVID-19 and conspiracy theories in 2020 – Ames Tribune

The year 2020 will not only be notorious for the COVID-19 pandemic when 340,000-350,000 American will lose their lives to the virus, it will also be marked by widespread loss of trust in science and the emergence of numerous conspiracy theories that many politicians and a large portion of the population believed. 

Millions of Q-Anon supporters promoted bizarre conspiracy theories that accused “Democratic elites” of cannibalism and sex trafficking children, and claimed that the coronavirus was “manufactured” by Dr. Anthony Fauci or China. Many politicians agreed, despite no evidence, that the virus was somehow created by evildoers, and this just one of many conspiracy theories passed on by politicians in 2020, causing widespread distrust of our institutions. 

One incredible conspiracy claim by President Trump went as far as the Supreme Court, which was a lawsuit that tried to overturn the election results. The Supreme Court quickly rejected the suit brought by the Texas attorney general along with 17 other state attorneys general and 126 members of Congress who, like President Trump, claimed widespread voting fraud in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. 

Though there was no evidence of voting fraud — even by one or two election officials  — the judges were asked to believe that in dozens of counties and many hundreds of precincts, there were somehow at least thousands of Republican and Democratic poll watchers and election officials who were part of some vast conspiracy to fraudulently add votes for candidate Biden.

This accusation of voting conspiracy and fraud was similar to an accusation earlier by many politicians, including an Iowa politician, that physicians were falsely inflating the numbers of COVID-19 deaths.

The COVID-19 pandemic has lately been worsening, with record high numbers of infections and deaths — now over 3,000 deaths daily — which is higher than the total who died at Pearl Harbor or on 9-11.

We are on track by February 2021 to lose over 400,000 Americans to COVID-19. Do these politicians and conspiracy theorists think that tens of thousands of doctors who care for COVID-19 victims are committing fraud?  Unfortunately it is the same politicians who accuse others of fraud who discount scientific advice about protecting vulnerable Americans from the deadly virus. 

America lost 407,000 soldiers in World War 2, and unless we finally get serious about masks and social distancing, we will surpass that number by the time vaccines can finally stem the losses. Countries like Japan, Taiwan, and New Zealand that followed scientific and public health advice, have had far fewer deaths and have proved that this pandemic can be controlled with better compliance with science-based recommendations.  

America’s response in 2020 to the coronavirus disease has been shockingly inadequate, marked by anti-mask behavior, anti-vaccine beliefs, conspiracy theories about the origins of COVID-19, and support by politicians for unproven therapies (like hydroxychloroquine). Less than half of Americans have followed health recommendations to wear a mask when out in public.    

Those anti-science beliefs and rhetoric have resulted in far more American deaths. With only 4% of the world’s population, we have experienced 20% of the total world deaths from COVID-19.

Recently COVID-19 has become the leading cause of death in the U.S. Our obituary pages are overflowing, and even though vaccines are on their way, we still need to follow masking and distancing guidelines until the summer when most of the population will be vaccinated. There may still be many who doubt the safety of the vaccines, but hopefully enough Americans will get vaccinated to protect the rest of the population. 

So why do so many Americans believe in these conspiracy theories that have no factual evidence? It is true the early recommendations on protection changed as the pandemic evolved and more knowledge came out about infectivity and virulence of COVID-19, so this could have had some effect on the trust of the scientific advice. 

The growth of social media has also fueled much of the distrust in science and generated many outlandish conspiracy theories that seem to echo across the country and world, increasing and reinforcing false beliefs.  

Scientists, clinicians, public health experts and educational leaders need to engage patients and all Americans in dialogue that clarifies the reasons for wearing masks, social distancing and hygiene as well as vaccinations and how we determine medications are, or are not, effective and safe. 

The good news is that Congress and the Trump administration did fund the research and rollout of the vaccine in record time. Now the challenge is to convince Americans who are skeptical about the role of government and science to get vaccinated. 

If more Americans understand and appreciate scientific methods and support rather than undermine our democracy, we will all be better off. We should also hope every politician will have the courage to denounce false conspiracy theories, and speak up for science and the truth about what we need to do to live healthy lives in a thriving democracy. 

Dr. Michael Kitchell is a neurologist at McFarland Clinic.