One of the problems of the more informed times we live in, where we can Google anything, has been the growth of “alternative facts”.  People these days never seem to agree on anything.  Indeed, before the vaccines for Covid 19 were even invented there were already all sorts of fake news stories about how they wouldn’t work.  They were being discredited before they were even invented! 

Some countries, for their own purposes, have whole organizations devoted to the spread of false information in Western society – to provoke chaos and division amongst people.  Think Russia for one. So not only do you have more fake news than ever, but some bad actors actively promoting fake news while creating disputes about real news so that experts cease to be “experts” and every person, no matter their qualifications, is entitled, in the name of freedom of speech to have “their own opinion”.  Of course, as the saying goes you are entitled to your opinion – but not to your own facts!

Fake news. Medical quackery. Conspiracy theories.  All the crazy stuff that once was marginalized is now driven to the centre and some perfectly intelligent people unfortunately  fall for it – perhaps by following a reading the wrong people and websites. 

Steven Pinker’s new book “Rationality” deals with this subject and how we as a species can be so clever that we manage to come up with a cure so quickly to a major new virus – yet have people shoot it down with crazy, irrational theories.  He argues that because of all the information we are surrounded by, we fail to take advantage of skills we have developed for centuries – logic, critical thinking and the probability of different things.

What’s really sad to read is the stories of families coming out now in the American media of people dying in ICU and begging Doctors to give them the vaccine and being told it is too late.  Of loved ones who have lost relatives because they were “anti-vaxxers”.  There are real consequences for those who fall for the quackery.