Busting the conspiracy myth: Keep your scepticism healthy

Spending most of his day in a wheelchair in a rehab centre outside London, battling to stand up unaided and clench his right fist properly, never mind think about walking again, my cousin Sean would probably swear violently at all the confident conspiracy theorists who say Covid-19 “is just a flu, bro…”

No doubt there are many families – in South Africa, as well as around the world – who would see the memories of their departed loved ones stained by the other conspiracies theorists who say Covid-19 is “one big hoax”.

Let’s just think about that for a moment. It has been calculated that if the American moon landing in 1969 were also “one big hoax”, then those orchestrating it would have had to keep upwards of three million people silent – and not leaking a word – for at least three years.

For the Covid-19 “conspiracy” to be global, it would require many, many more people to be part of the scam. The conspiracy theorists blame the “mainstream media” (which includes us, by the way, so if you’re one of the believers in that myth, then it’s been nice knowing you…) for propagating the lie.

But who would have organised the wheezing and dying patients cramming the halls of hospitals in northern Italy, the UK or New York City?

A massive number of actors requiring the world’s biggest theatrical talent agency… So, far, 800 000 people have died worldwide and, as I write this, the South African death toll stands at just under 13 000, with predictions that 21 000 people would have died of Covid-19 by the beginning of November.

Lockdowns will undoubtedly cause more deaths from the spread of poverty and from the fact normal medical services were put on hold.

But that – despite what the Covid-19 doubters say – is much more difficult to quantify. Also, to those who claim the lockdowns were an attempt by governments to control their people, I ask: how?

Getting people to wear masks and stay indoors is not stealing people’s minds. And what is the game plan of the plotters?

Having said that, there is no doubt governments around the world have been panicked into strict lockdown measures by alarmist or woefully off-the-mark epidemiological projections, sparked by the influential model prepared by Neil Ferguson of the Imperial College in London, which projected numbers of deaths in the UK (and in the US) which were out by orders of magnitude.

The overreaction and ineptitude – never mind corruption (the way we roll in SA) – are understandable given the fact the world has never seen anything like this before. In terms of numbers and its multiple physiological impacts, Covid-19 is worse than what has come before.

At the same time, as the world has splintered into two camps, there has also been a lot of dangerous behaviour from the Covid “believers” too.

When Donald Trump suggested the use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a treatment, the “left” and its scientists went ballistic, claiming the drug (in use as an antiviral malaria treatment for 50 years) was life-threatening.

Studies have shown, though, that when administered early in the course of the infection, HCQ definitely helps.

When it is used later, when patients are already in hospital, it has little effect. That’s the point many miss.

My Covid-19 treatment regime: question all the answers. Keep your scepticism healthy

Brendan Seery

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