The Risks of Believing False Medical Information!
Earlier today, I came across the following image :
Now while there is nothing harmful strictly speaking in the recipe mentioned, I have a problem with accepting the "Notes" of this message. Before I begin, I would like to make this absolutely clear that I have nothing against natural medicine. It just co-incidentally happens to a natural medicine that is being mentioned in the image above. My stance would still be the same if the image was talking about some allopathic medicine as well (more about this in a while.)
So what is my issue with the Note of this image?
I think it’s important we all understand that we can not just call something proven in the field of medical sciences based on word of mouth or just a single case. Cured in 24 hours should pretty much be enough for it to be flagged as made up fairy tale. If we could dig a little deeper into this issue, I can almost guarantee you that no doctor has actually claimed they have been cured by this in 24 hours. Again, I really don't mean to be rude, but that's not how medical science works. Either no doctor has made a claim like that and someone just made it up started spreading rumors that a doctor said something like this, OR, whoever said it is not really a doctor. (fake doctors are a real thing in our subcontinent)
Natural medicine has it's uses I can not deny that at all. It would be foolish of me to do so. Natural medicine can be a proven method of treatment. For example The use of papaya leaf extract in the treatment of low platelet count in dengue fever is a well known and "proven" treatment.
But that does not mean we should just go on and claim anything to be "proven" treatment without any evidence. And It's not just about natural medicine. With the coronavirus issue, lot of people started claiming the use of Azithromycin (just one example, there are a few more you must have heard of, and even taken!) to be effective treatment which in my opinion is absolute BS. There’s no scientific/statistically significant evidence for using Azithromycin but certain pharmaceutical companies started spreading such rumors for business benefits. In my country, the Representatives of Pharma companies even started sending these information via text messages with dosages and all just to bump up the sales of their drugs, WITH NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER!
Now, coming back to the above recipe. You may ask, well doc, if there's nothing harmful, what's the problem if I take it? In all honesty, no problem at all! Hell my mom makes me drink ginger tea everyday and I take it gladly. There's no problem in taking this natural remedy. The problem is when you start believing it is going to cure Coronavirus, when in fact, there's no evidence it will.
So why is this a problem?
This is a major problem because, this belief that a simple homemade recipe is going to cure you of coronavirus will lower your guard. It will eventually make you take the protective measures we've been advocating lightly. Because when you start believing there's a cure, the coronavirus will not sound as dangerous anymore now, will it? But the fact is, there is no cure for the coronavirus as of yet, and we can not afford to lower our guards based on some wrong beliefs.
Let's look at a simple example. We all know eating junk food is bad for our health as it raises our cholesterol levels and can lead to serious cardiovascular diseases like heart attack, stroke, etc. But does that stop most of us from eating junk food? No.
Why no, you ask! Well, because we know there's medically proven drugs available that work pretty effectively in lowering cholesterol levels and thus reducing the risk or at least delaying the development the cardiovascular disease. It is scientifically proven regular exercises will reduce the risk of developing CVS diseases. So people have the belief that there's a remedy, it's not the end of the world if you eat a cheesy, mayonnaise filled double steak burger!
This is human nature and this exact problem will happen when people start believing that there's a cure available for coronavirus. Most people will not take protective measures seriously and not only put themselves in danger, but also people they interact with. I've in fact had people answer me, when I asked them why you're not wearing a mask, that they drink hot water everyday, so masks are not needed!
You can argue, no I'll stay vigilant, I'll wear masks, I'll wash hands 10 times a day! But C'mon! Who are we kidding! Wearing masks all the time, washing hands all the time, consciously maintaining social distance, it's all very tedious and we all know the ONLY reason we're trying our level best to maintain these is because we know how dangerous getting Covid is, because there's No treatment. But once it gets to your head, you can cure it, you will eventually lower you guards. Maybe not immediately, maybe not in a week or two, but eventually, surely you will! Most people will and we can not afford to let that happen. The health system is already quite saturated and spreading false claims of magically discovering a cure for coronavirus overnight isn't helping.
We must all take responsibility of what we choose to believe. Whenever you come across such claims, ALWAYS verify the scientific and statistical data and evidence. If there's no evidence, you shouldn't believe the claim.
BDCommunity Witness
Shared on Twitter : https://twitter.com/simplifylife_11/status/1282250878141919232
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I agree with you Doc. It is very important that you cleared the doubt of many people through this post. It is not enough to just be complacent about it and think that it is okay to share a magical cure because the situation is out of hand and people should not rely on such.
As Mad-eyed-Moody would say :
lol. a true Potter fan :)
Good information doc :)
Thanks Ray, just doing my part on spreading awareness :)
Wouldnt it be best for young people to go out an get it and become immune?
The millenial protestors and, bar-frequenters can be heroes for getting the infection, braving the outdoors and staying away from granny for a month.
With the death rate for those under 45 non-existant, maybe this thing isn't so dangerous anymore?
Great to engage with you in the Man Cave. Forgive me if I'm a bit cantankerous, after all I have watched everyone I know and love emprisoned and terrified over the last several months over quite dubious analysis of the actual data.
Not at all mate! It's all in good intention :)
I can not vouch for that because young people I personally know has died of Covid, quite a few of them actually. If it was something I heard from someone, I might have been a bit indifferent, but these are people I know that I've lost, friends, teachers and such. So while logically chances of younger people dying is less, I can not advice someone to go out and get infected because I also know young people who have died. Makes sense?
I understand life is risky, I have some very good friends who died young in a motorcycle traffic accident its really sad.
Do you really think Covid is riskier than driving? Or love making? How about intravenous drug use? Is going to a bar during Covid riskier than having an elective surgury, such as an abortion? (or knee replacement?). One of my best friends almost died of MERSA, an antibiotic resistant form of stapholococcus bacteria after having an elective surgury in a major hospital in the US. Very dangerous.
I suppose we are just around to risk analysis. I suppose thats for each to decide. But if I was handing out money, I would give the stimulus money to people that went outside and took the risk (and also 'risked' becoming immune), not to the ones who decide to stay inside.
Otherwise a plan of 'never reopening' seems to be on the table. Poverty seems way more dangerous than Covid to us.
I can not deny what you're saying. And it's pretty obvious that we'll have to learn to live with the covid. We can't really have everything shut forever.
But I don’t see why we shouldn’t try to prevent something just because it is safer than driving or safer than getting a surgery.
It's not about judging which is worse, It's about doing what we can to prevent what we can. We can't really compare the dangers of driving to the dangers of covid now, can we! But that's hardly the point. The point is, ideally, we should do all we can from where we stand to prevent both.
Same goes for post surgical infections. We do all we can to minimise them, but do they still happen? Of course. Does that mean we should stop taking antiseptic precaution altogether? No.
Great discussion, I have made some points in my recent post.
As long as we can talk openly and honestly about appropriate risk mitigation, I think we are on the right track. We set speed limits to driving, not outlaw it. Condoms are recommended for those who engage in certain types of risks. Antiseptic treatments I think are an important part of pre-surgery procedure, though we could have a really good conversation about how preventionary treatments is leading to antibiotic resistant strains of certain diseases.
A good place to start, in my opinion, would be to admit that risks are not 'one size fits all', and thus invite additional levels of analysis over and above: 'There is a risk, so stay inside until its passed no matter your current conditions'.
Maybe someday we will hehe ;)
I'm totally agree with you.we let our guard down when we think we have a cure of our diseases
well explained dear. We are not collecting information from authentic sources and sometimes we are using Facebook and social media for collecting information. That's the problem
Excellent writing It is helpful for ongoing problems Thanks Mama for giving such a clear example.
One of the critical problem in hive that there is no moderation, which IS a good thing, and very powerful. But with great power comes great responsibility, we are a bit weak on that. So what is happening that lot of conspiracy and pseudoscience is trending on hive because a small group of people with high stake is voting them to trending. Trouble is, trending is our outward facing landing page. It matters how it looks and it portrays our image to a new comer. So your discussion of scientific facts are refreshing.
The reason for this from what I have observed so far is, people are not willing to accept that an expert in a specific field is supposed to know more than them. No one needs to have knowledge in every field. So a lot of people giving out ""medical information"" without really understanding in depth what they are saying.
You know that saying in bengali "অল্প বিদ্যা ভয়ংকর" That's exactly what's happening here. They are seemingly approaching with logic, but because their basic understanding of the topic has huge gaps, their logic is often flawed. And when a flawed logic arises from lack of knowledge and in depth understanding of the concept, it's quite difficult no matter how much you try and debunk the pseudoscience.