Dunning-Kruger effect, or why does people genuinely think that coronavirus is a "fake plandemic"?

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(Edited)

Most of us know that science works, at least on an intuitive level of understanding. Medicine treats diseases, airplanes fly and new breeds are being created via artifical gene modifications... Yet some of us still question science - which, to some certain degree, is fine. The science itself is mostly about questioning not only the reality we live in and the laws that rule it, but also the scientific laws itself. That's why the constant progress is being made - challenge a currently valid theory, find a better one and prove it.

Though there is one big problem regarding this whole theory - most of the people simply don't have necessary knowledge or intellectual capital to question science. And regardless of their lack of knowledge, they still do so, usually due to psychological reasons. And, what's more terryfing, these people are deeply convinced that they have necessary qualifications.

In psychology this phenomenon is called a Dunning-Kruger effect. And altough the scientists who discovered it received an Ig Nobel (a prize created to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think"), this effect poses a serious threat to modern civilization. Some people are not only convinced about their alleged knowledge, but they also think, that due to their intellectual capital they cannot be wrong and, subsequently, if others think otherwise, these others must be wrong.

Ultimately we are left with people that not just think that COVID-19 is not dangereous at all, but also that it is a fake disease manufactured by some sort of international conspiracy. Due to Dunning-Kruger effect they think that thousands of scientists who devoted their whole life to study viruses and diseases are wrong and somehow they know the truth. This way of thinking is becoming a big problem, since recently we passed 1 million deaths caused by COVID-19 and we are still counting. The pandemic accelerates, especially in developing countries like India or Nigeria and in order to protect our health we simply need to follow instructions created by scientists and relevant medical authorities. This is the only way to stop to pandemic from starting to be much, much worse.

One, last thought - in 1918 the world faced the Spanish Flu (H1N1) pandemic. 500 million people were infected and about 50 million died from the virus [1]. If we compare it to the current COVID-19 stats (33 mil. infected, 1 mil. dead) [2] and take into account the development of medicine we can see, that coronavirus is almost as lethal as the Spanish Flu. Had COVID-19 happened in 1918, it probably would have killed the number of people simillar or even bigger then the Spanish Flu. Don't underestimate this new bug - it still may make a lot of harm.

If you aren't really convinced about current scientific development regarding studying COVID-19, please visit Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service [3] and see it by yourself!

SOURCES:
[1] - US CDC website, https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html
[2] - Worldometer, COVID-19 stats, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?utm_campaign=homeAdvegas1
[3] - Ofxord COVID-10 Evidence Service, https://www.cebm.net/oxford-covid-19-evidence-service/



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