It is the state of mind and prior interest of the readers that incentivized BBC to make a good
story of the death of the poor immigrant Muslim schoolboy, whom the mainstream media wouldn’t
even touch with a ten foot pole if he died not of SARS-CoV-2 but of influenza or other so-called
”mild coronavirus”.
2.13
False authority
False authority is the misconception that a perceived authority must know better and that the
person should conform to their opinion.
Specific claim
”COVID-19 is a new virus to which no one has immunity”
”Only 1% of reported cases do not have symptoms”
”Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died. By comparison, seasonal flu gener-
ally kills far fewer than 1% of those infected”
Tedros Adhanom, WHO Director General
March 3rd, 2020
These claims are blatantly wrong. We know it now and we had enough data to know it at the
beginning of March 2020.
It is outside of the scope of this article to explain the motives of this egregious disinformation,
so we can only provide a few pointers for individual research.
World Health Organization was established in 1948 as a noble effort to guide nations in ensuring
the highest level of health of the world population. It was initially funded by member countries,
but in 1980s the structure has changed and currently over half of the funding, in the informal way,
comes from private donors, notably from the pharmaceutical industry.
Over the last 20 years it became one of the most corrupted subsidiaries of the United Nations
and for the attentive observer, it completely lost its credibility in 2017 by electing Tedros Adhanom
as a director general, the first in the organization history not to be a medical doctor (although
Tedros Adhanom insists on calling him ”Dr Tedros”). Incompetence is a trivial objection in com-
parison to the new director’s horrifying biography that was partially rewritten by Mercury Public
Affairs, a US-based lobbying company hired by Mr Tedros.
Although apparent experts are supposed to give legitimacy to an argument, authority has no
place in searching the truth. We should always ask for evidence. One should especially beware of
false authorities that used to be true authorities in the past.
2.14
Bandwagon effect
Bandwagon effect refers to people’s propensity to do something because other people are doing it
regardless of whether it aligns with their original beliefs and regardless of the underlying evidence.
When it seems that everyone is doing something, there is a tremendous pressure to conform.
Part of the reason people conform is that they look to other people in their social group for
information about what is right or acceptable. The need to belong pressures people to adopt the
norms and attitudes of the majority to gain acceptance and approval from the group. The rate of
uptake of beliefs, ideas, fads and trends increases the more that they have already been adopted
by others. Once the trend gains momentum it becomes the subject of communal reinforcement;
the idea is repeatedly asserted and turns into a strong belief until it is regarded as fact.
The bandwagon effect can be very detrimental. The notable example is creation of market
bubbles.
Medical bandwagons have been identified as ”the overwhelming acceptance of unproved but
popular ideas” and described already in 1970s [41]
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