Ilonggos don’t bite COVID-19 conspiracy theories

By Alex P. Vidal

“There is so much misinformation out there. If you give people even a little bit, it gets blown out of proportion then you have to go put out fires. So it’s much easier to say, ‘No comment.’”

—Oren Peli

WE’RE glad that most Ilonggos have ignored the saber-rattling of those who cling to a flood of conspiracy theories, innuendos and disinformation about the causes and origins of COVID-19.

If they didn’t and thus allowed themselves to be duped by these absurd theories, Ilonggos would be marching in the streets and protesting the extended enhanced social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines like what some angry Americans are doing today.

There would have been a torrent of public defiance and acts of recalcitrance.

But since the Ilonggos are among the most educated people on earth, they know what’s going on; they understand why they needed to be prevented from going to work and from opening their shops while the situation remains unpredictable in as far as infection of coronavirus is concerned.

They believe COVID-19 is a pandemic that needs to be addressed thoroughly and seriously, and a total cooperation from the public is essential and necessary so we can all go back to our normal lives in a soonest possible time after May 15.

This growing ecosystem of misinformation and public distrust marshaled by believers of conspiracy theory mostly in the social media has led the World Health Organization (WHO) to warn of an “infodemic.”

 

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Meanwhile, it appears that people in the city and province of Iloilo are satisfied with the way their public officials, led by Iloilo City Mayor Geronimo “Jerry” Treñas and Iloilo Governor Arthur “Toto” Defensor Jr., handle the crisis in the local level save for some miscues and missteps that normally occur when a society is under siege by a gigantic problem.

Except for those who violated the lockdown and abused the stimulus money distributed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) through their punong barangay, Ilonggos have, so far, manifested a strict compliance of the rule of law and respect to their authorities while the world is trying its darn best to contain the deadliest virus to ever hit the human race in 100 years.

Even the Filipinos in general have refused to be taken for a ride by these confusing conspiracy theories that have eroded public trust and undermined health officials in manner that could broaden and even outlast the pandemic.

 

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While some Filipinos are whining and cajoling their government to lift the curfew or the extended lockdown so they can go back to work soon, they don’t deny that the coronavirus is a pandemic no one had wanted to happen.

They dismiss the lies and unfounded imputations of conspiracy theories that the virus is a Chinese bioweapon, a partisan invention or part of a plot to re-engineer the population.

However dark, each claim seems to give a senseless tragedy some degree of meaning. Unlike what is happening in some parts of the United States today.

Karen M. Douglas, a social psychologist who studies belief in conspiracies at the University of Kent in Britain, in a report by Max Fisher, said the current issue on COVID-19 “has all the ingredients for leading people to conspiracy theories.”

Rumors and patently unbelievable claims are spread by everyday people whose critical faculties have simply been overwhelmed, psychologists say, by feelings of confusion and helplessness.

 

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“But many false claims are also being promoted by governments looking to hide their failures, partisan actors seeking political benefit, run-of-the-mill scammers and, in the United States, a president who has pushed unproven cures and blame-deflecting falsehoods,” wrote Fisher.

“The conspiracy theories all carry a common message: The only protection comes from possessing the secret truths that ‘they’ don’t want you to hear. The feelings of security and control offered by such rumors may be illusory, but the damage to the public trust is all too real.”

It has led people to consume fatal home remedies and flout social distancing guidance. And it is disrupting the sweeping collective actions, like staying at home or wearing masks, needed to contain a virus that has already killed more than 79,000 people.

“We’ve faced pandemics before,” said Graham Brookie, who directs the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. “We haven’t faced a pandemic at a time when humans are as connected and have as much access to information as they do now.”

Fisher pointed out that “the feelings of security and control offered by such rumors may be illusory, but the damage to the public trust is all too real.”

It has led people to consume fatal home remedies and flout social distancing guidance.

And it is disrupting the sweeping collective actions, like staying at home or wearing masks, needed to contain a virus that has already killed thousands of people.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two local dailies in Iloilo)