How COVID-19 Is Testing Our Intelligence

(Photo from Morning Star)

[This blog has already been relocated to this Wordpress site.]

I've always had the thought that the lack of reasoning and ignorance would eventually result in some future disasters. Now that I think about it, the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is actually one of those disasters.

The disease caused by the virus, Covid-19, as we know, is hard to deal with by its nature in the first place. It is highly contagious, can be spread when the patient shows no symptoms, and has caused many more deaths in a year than the flu in, for example, the US. Also, it is still new to us so we (health experts and scientists) are not certain how to treat it yet.

That does not mean we do not know how to prevent it. It is quite clear to us how it is spread so we know how to keep it from spreading. Experts are quite sure that, we can lower the risk of getting/spreading it by physical ("social") distancing, washing hands, wearing masks (confirmed later on), etc.

Then that's great, right? Oh but people are not doing those things. Why? I have observed two major barriers*:

False information: Rumors and myths spreading around on the internet is not new, but those about the coronavirus cause much more severe consequences. All kinds of wrong or unproven ways to prevent/treat COVID19 are being spread. This only makes things so much worse.

False information could also be generated in your head. This kind usually occurs to people who are ignorant about lots of things but overly confident in their own belief and thinking (known as the Dunning-Kruger effect). They are also "experts" in all fields. They think they just know it (somehow).

['I thought this was a hoax': Patient, 30, dies after attending 'COVID party,' doctor says]

Not weighing the risks and the benefits: There is no way we can estimate what the exact risk of getting the coronavirus is by, for example, going to a crowded party. But, we have to at least first take a moment to think about what benefit we are going to get, and understand that the likelihood of contracting the virus could be somewhat high. Then we may come to the conclusion that the risk outweighs the benefit.

Similarly, not wearing masks in a crowded place or not washing hands properly increases the risk of contracting/spreading COVID19, but many people still fight against it or refuse to do it just because it is not comfortable or convenient, or they feel that it restricts their freedom.

(After I finished this article, this interesting study came out: Lower cognitive ability linked to non-compliance with social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus outbreak)

Perhaps if we all did our best to prevent getting/spreading the virus, it would have been almost over already. Oh, silly me. I do not live in a wonderful world where everyone is rational and well-informed. Nevertheless, that should be the world that we strive for, and that is exactly why I think (reforming) education is so critical.

*Very unsurprisingly, they resemble the reasons for anti-vaccine.

[This blog has already been relocated to this Wordpress site.]