Using Common Sense to Identify Rumors
Whenever society falls into some kind of crisis, rumors inevitably spring up everywhere. Many people are swayed by them. Lately there have been especially many rumors, and numerous patients and their families have come to me asking me to verify claims that are plainly contrary to common sense.For instance, today many people are circulating a rumor that a certain businessperson committed suicide, and someone asked me whether it could be true. I told her: anyone who can build an enterprise that large has weathered countless storms and stressors, and their psychological makeup would not be so fragile as to lead them to suicide. I do not know whether this rumor is true or false, but analyzed by common sense, it is highly implausible.Or again, someone told me that a certain place had designated a certain school (they even gave the school's name) as a pilot for herd immunity, letting students go without masks and gather as much as possible so as to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible. Such rumors have been rampant these past few days, but it is safe to say they are false.COVID is not influenza. Hong Kong, with a population of 7.31 million, has already lost over ten thousand people to Omicron this year, whereas in a normal year influenza kills only about a thousand or so Hong Kongers. Both Hong Kong and Taiwan opened up during the Omicron wave, and both lost many people. Our current containment strategy has indeed changed greatly, but the government will only try to flatten the infection curve, slow the pace of infection, ease the burden on medical institutions, and thereby lower the death rate. How on earth could it deliberately ask people to pursue herd immunity and speed up transmission? These are all rumors that common sense can see through.Or again, people have asked me whether wearing masks really causes lung nodules, as many are now claiming. Some doctors are even popularizing the idea that masks cause lung nodules. I cannot agree. We know that Japanese people have long worn masks during flu season—long before the pandemic—yet the incidence of lung nodules and lung cancer in Japan is not high. Surgeons also wear masks daily in their work, and there is no data showing that surgeons have a higher prevalence of lung nodules than the general population. If some of these people really are doctors, they should have studied epidemiology and should know that drawing such a conclusion requires large controlled clinical studies. Reaching a conclusion without such statistical data can only be called reckless talk.Many other people have asked me about all sorts of claims that some drug works wonders against COVID. If there really were a specific drug for COVID now, how could the whole world still be mired in this pandemic, unable to extricate itself? When people ask me to recommend an anti-COVID wonder drug, I refuse, because I do not want to join the ranks of those manufacturing rumors. At present, every patient who dies of COVID has their own individual reasons; no wonder drug can solve everyone's problem.Rumors are remarkably bewitching. In extraordinary times all sorts of rumors circulate and leave people frightened; many become anxious as a result. There is an old Chinese saying, "Rumors stop with the wise." In fact, if you simply think things through using common sense, it is quite easy to see rumors for what they are.As I mentioned in my previous article, in times like these we should meet every change with constancy. Those with fragile bodies should do so in self-protection, and the general public should do so in the face of rumors. Only by refusing to credulously believe every unreliable rumor can we stay free of panic.