THE explosive spread of misinformation, and the misrepresentation of scientific facts by some about Covid-19, has led the World Health Organisation to declare: "We're not just fighting an epidemic, we're fighting an infodemic."
Politicians are known to be economical with the truth. However, the spread of pseudoscience during a pandemic is more disturbing.
This is unsurprisingly common with all the religious hocus-pocus.
In India, there was a gathering of devotees and activists that had hosted a cow-urine drinking party as a means to stave off the coronavirus.
A swami had advocated that the drinking of cow urine, and taking a bath in cow dung, could help prevent and cure Covid-19. As expected, this created a stink in the scientific community.
A controversial rabbi announced a "guaranteed" cure for Covid-19: using a hair-blower to blow hot air to the back of the throat, until it gets really hot, for five minutes, twice daily.
Or, a televangelist in the United States who felt divinely-inspired to promote and sell "Silver Solutions" to the masses through his TV show as a cure for coronavirus, HIV and other illnesses.
A cleric in Iran had denounced Western medicine as un-Islamic, and advocated tips, including consuming large quantities of brown sugar.
A more striking treatment from the cleric was his suggestion to drench cotton with violet essential oil and to dab it onto the anus before bedtime.
Suggestions like this can be more than just a pain in the backside, particularly when others start to take heed.
To be absolutely categorical, up to today, there is no scientific evidence to validate these propositions.
It is pseudoscience. Plain and simple.
It creates a false sense of security, which emboldens the public to flout medical guidelines on social distancing.
This can be downright dangerous when the pseudoscience involves unsafe advice that can lead to harm, for instance, that ingesting disinfectants could pave the way for coronavirus treatment, but this led to a spike in poison cases.
A yearning for simple answers and quick-fix solutions to regain control has led to the spread of fake news.
The situation now provides a perfect breeding ground for conspiracy theories to thrive: the collapse of the global economy, the spread of a potent virus that originates from a foreign land, the absence of treatment and the alarming deaths it incurs, as well as government lockdowns globally with military-style enforcement.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the conspiracy theory that blames Covid-19 on the 5G broadband system has been so potent, despite its lack of substance and scientific-basis.
Or the new "Plandemic" pseudodocumentary that seems to peddle the anti-science narrative similar to the anti-vaccine plots.
This pandemic has also unveiled that our education system has failed to produce a society that is capable of critically evaluating information.
With social media providing platforms to all voices to be heard, whatever crackpot propositions that you hear, there will always be someone, somewhere, potentially even with advanced degrees and commanding some authority, who shares the same bogus conviction.
Science-based decision-making, therefore requires that we look at the evidence critically.
This is a skillset that has to be taught from a very young age: the freedom to question anything and everything.
The fight against the pandemic has shown that leaders who listen to scientific advice have been more successful in containing the virus spread.
People need to trust the science.
In some countries, the public trust in science has been eroded due to irresponsible and deliberate attempts to undermine the role of science in policymaking.
We need to preserve the public trust and therefore it is incumbent on researchers, scientists and medical professionals to speak up in defence of rigorous science, even if it is unpopular or goes against an administration.
It is critical that scientists engage in science communication, lest we may see waves and waves of misinformation going viral, misrepresenting scientific facts, creating a global infodemic more harmful than the Covid-19 pandemic itself. And this may just be the beginning.
The writer is a scientist who has worked for global R&D organisations in four countries and is an advocate for evidence-based policymaking
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times