Bernard Shaw and the Science Dilemma in the Age of Disinformation – Journal da USP

Hey text Scientific Disinformation: A Pandemic of Lies, published in this journal, is an important and very timely article. For this reason, I suggest supplementing it with information from the biomedical community that has been in some way directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In light of current scientific knowledge and the heroic history of Brazilian epidemiology, our scientists can certainly explain why we are exposed to unexpected risks of old and new epidemics/epidemics. Such an initiative could explain, for example, why the dengue vaccine, so essential to eradicating this epidemic in Brazil, for more than twenty years, has been a promise of our government and the Butantan Institute. Are we going to keep locking the door after breaking into the house? I’ll start with the title: A Pandemic of Lies.

Contrary to the belief that the main reason for denial of vaccination is misinformation (caused by fake news), this reason has deeper and much older roots. An example of this fact can be found in the collective unconscious, which is impossible to describe in a few words. One way to explain this can be found in the controversy raised in the early twentieth century by the famous playwright and Nobel Prize winner, Sir Bernard Shaw. Bernard Shaw, without mincing words, created a huge controversy in England, spreading his ideas Strong condemnation of the practice of vaccination. Fake news can, at best, debunk reactionary fears about the introduction of “evil spirits” (vaccines) into the human body.

It is important to remember that we are still suffering the consequences of the harmful effects of beliefs transmitted by ancient and modern alchemists, which continue to intrude on the human mind. So do we need to do more to spread knowledge of modern epidemiology or do we need a new Paracelsius to burn mobile phones in Republic Square?

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