The Hidden Harm of Pseudoscience

The public reaction to the Covid-19 Pandemic released waves upon waves of pseudoscientific belief and conspiracies into the world. People were scared. People were angry. For the vast majority of people, their entire worlds turned upside-down in a matter of days or weeks and they were met with a level of control upon their lives that they may never have experienced before.

Conspiracies and pseudoscience can be comforting. In a world where we are being constantly bombarded with big, terrifying things happening (such as a global pandemic), it’s very easy to feel out of control. These enclaves where lies and misconceptions are treated as the truth can offer back that sense of control which so many people lack.

This is a house in Texas, photographed in September of 2020. The windows, signs in the front yard, and even their truck in the driveway are all covered in conspiracy theories and science denial language. The front of the house is specifically adorned with flat Earth slogans–a pseudoscientific belief that most people would consider silly and harmful. However, these slogans are combined with an anti-mask display in the yard, specifically calling on people to stop masking to prevent the spread of covid.

Pseudoscience does not exist in a vacuum. What may look like a silly, objectively harmless belief can oftentimes be a gateway into further and further distrust of the scientific establishment. People don’t only find comfort in these conspiracies–they find community. They find echo chambers who only repeat what they all want to hear. They find people who take them seriously, who make them feel smart, who make them feel special. What begins with a cautious distrust can end with denial of reality and disregard for the safety of themselves and others.

Humans love creating teams–when conspiracy gets involved it becomes “us” versus “them,” and a nebulous “them” is a boogeyman that can be shaped into anything. Sometimes this “them” is the scientific establishment. Sometimes “they” are a specific political figure. Oftentimes this “them” is aimed at racial, religious, and ethnic minorities. Othering a group to create a villain is an easy way to feel more in control when the world feels like it’s crashing down–it’s not satisfying to say that no one is at fault. Having a target to be mad at? That feels better.

It’s a dangerously slippery slope. The pandemic saw the sudden radicalization of people in ways that they’d never been before, all to protest governments intervening in the pandemic. If you were alive at the time, you saw the effects–people ignoring mask mandates, people avoiding the vaccine, people going out of their way to treat themselves with medicine that was not proven to work on Covid-19, and so, so many unnecessary deaths.

On the right is a real sign that was posted at Palmer Feed and Supply stores in Texas concerning the use of Ivermectin to treat Covid-19. Because people had no trust in the medical field, they trusted people who told them to take livestock dewormer to treat themselves. So many people watched their loved ones fall into these pseudoscientific rabbit holes, and many made those holes their graves.