Paul Revere by Cyrus Dallin, North End, Boston

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Monday, April 26, 2021

What are the gobshites saying this week?


If you check out certain blogs and news sites, what you'll see is a video of a Canadian doctor, Roger Hodkinson, calling COVID-19 the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on civilization; "the most grave injustice our society has ever experienced;" and other such sweeping claims about the pandemic. 


The news sites and blogs that are posting this video are engaging in what is known as "confirmation bias." 

Confirmation bias: The tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one's existing beliefs. Existing beliefs can include one's expectations in a given situation and predictions about a particular outcome.



What we know about Dr. Roger Hodkinson:


What's True :  A man who identified himself as Dr. Roger Hodkinson, the CEO of a biotech company selling COVID-19 tests, said (erroneously) that COVID-19 was no worse than the flu during a public comment period of a city council meeting in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. 


 What's False:  Dr. Hodkinson is not the Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and his public comments do not align with the consensus of the medical community.








Hodkinson's claims have faced significant pushback from health authorities and medical experts: 


The Alberta Health Ministry "respects Dr Hodkinson's credentials as a physician but disagrees with his assessment of COVID-19 and is not taking advice from him in regard to the government's response to the pandemic," Steve Buick, a spokesman for the Minister of Health, told AFP in an email. He added that the Minister and government "continue to rely on the advice of Dr Deena Hinshaw, Chief Medical Officer of Health." Alberta Health Services, the provincial health care system, tweeted that Hodkinson "has no formal affiliation" with the health authorities and urged people to follow provincial guidelines instead. 

The Alberta Medical Association tweeted that "the Alberta Section of Laboratory Physicians does not share any of the views of the individual in question," who is a pathologist. The group added that it "endorses the use of masks, hand washing and physical distancing along with all other public health measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19." 

The Royal College, where Hodkinson was certified, also distanced itself from the statements of Hodkinson. "The Royal College strongly supports all public health advice given by the Chief Public Health Officer of Canada, including recommendations to practice physical distancing and to wear masks to help prevent Covid-19 transmission," it said in a statement.



The overwhelming majority of physicians, infectious disease and other medical experts, and medical researchers all agree that COVID-19 is highly infectious, that it is NOT just another flu, and that the use of masks and social distancing are effective ways of keeping infections down.

Now come the COVID-19 deniers and anti-maskers who promote the opinion of a pathologist, NOT AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, and confirm their biases about the way their governments have handled the pandemic.

It's interesting to note that these same American COVID-19 deniers, anti-maskers and social distancing naysayers, all have something in common: Their support of Donald J. Trump, who told Americans that the COVID-19 would be gone by the spring of 2020, and when it wasn't gone, he also suggested people inject disinfectant to fight the virus! 

500,000+ Americans died under Trump's watch. Many of those deaths are attributable to Trump's incompetence and mishandling of the virus AND TRUMP'S ANTI-MASK, AND ANTI-SOCIAL DISTANCING STANCE!

It's no surprise then that the blogs and news sites promoting Dr. Hodkinson's shocking statements are so eager to believe him and confirm their biases.

HERE'S A SITE THAT REFUTES WHAT DR. HODKINSON SAID:

11 comments:

Mike said...

I looked at some sites that mention Dr. Roger Hodkinson. Everyone is distancing themselves from him. And Snopes says that it may not have even been him on that call-in show. So much misinformation about COVID19 going around.

Infidel753 said...

This is a problem in every field of science. There are a few biologists and people in related fields who deny evolution (out of about 700,000 working scientists in those fields). There are a few in some field related to climate science who deny global warming. In some cases it's simple incompetence or believing what they want over what the evidence says (scientists are trained to avoid that, but they're only human), and as for some, there's notoriety and money to be had by telling the ignorant what they want to hear, when no one else is doing so -- especially in the medical field.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Mike A video exists showing Hodkinson speaking and saying that the COVID-19 is a hoax.

He's a distinct outlier, yet the Trumpers believe him and not the overwhelming evidence that COVID-19 is a real threat to people's health.

The Trumpers also believed Trump was a great president. I'm not surprised they're promoting Hodkinson as some sort of final authority on the pandemic!

Shaw Kenawe said...

Infidel753,

As I said, it's called confirmation bias. The Trumpers found someone who agrees with their uninformed opinions about the pandemic.

The overwhelming evidence is that COVID-19 (like climate change) is a real, lethal or life-changing virus that can be prevented by a vaccine, and mitigated by masks, and social distancing.

The astonishing thing about Trumpers is that they know their hero, Trump, contracted the virus, and just this past January was vaccinated! That fact does not seem to penetrate their biases.

You just can't fix some forms of stupid.

skudrunner said...

There are always those who will not be vaccinated for a number of things. I don't see why anyone would refuse to get a covid shot but those may be the same people who won't get a flu shot. Until it is mandatory for those in the workplace or schools to get the shot it will remain a personal choice or personal responsibility.
Of course since the current administration wants to pay people to not work and "learn" from home it may take longer to get compliance.

Bluebullamerica said...

So Skid, are you proposing having the government tell people to get vaccinated or else? Sure sounds that way.

skudrunner said...

Blueballs, You forget that I believe in taking personal responsibility so no it is a personal choice. If you will read my post you will see those in the workplace so that eliminates a lot of people who the democrats just bought. Your idea is better suited to the government knows best crowd or putting trust in politically corrupt people who have few skills.

Bluebullamerica said...

Skid, so Democrats don't work, huh? Funny how the actual numbers don't show anything like that. In fact, all those Democratic leaning states prop up and support the Republican leaning states by a rather large margin. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-most-least-dependent-on-the-federal-government/2700. OOps, another clownish attempt to 'own the libs' blows up in your face.
But hey, didn't Obama wear a tan suit that one time?

Les Carpenter said...

Didn't he "bow" to a foreign leader even? LOL!

Fuzzy Logic said...

The poll finds that Americans of all races and age groups share significant concerns about discrimination nearly two months after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed in police custody in Minneapolis. Nearly three-quarters of Americans, 71%, believe that race relations are either very or fairly bad, a 16-point increase since Joe Biden was elected.

Shaw Kenawe said...

Fuzzy Logic

I used Google to find which poll determined what you posted, but was not able to find it.

Could you link to it, please?

Also, if that poll is correct, who would be surprised? How many more shootings of unarmed Black men have we heard of in just the past month? While the Chauvin trial was going on? I would not be surprised if people were concerned about race relations.

All one has to do is look at far right blogs and news sites to see that Trumpers sided with the killer, Chauvin, and the rest of the country thought the verdict was just.