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COVID-19: Fear, quackery, false representations and the law
#MMPMID32911444
Freckelton Qc I
Int J Law Psychiatry
2020[Sep]; 72
(?): 101611
PMID32911444
show ga
Fear, anxiety and even paranoia can proliferate during a pandemic. Such
conditions, even when subclinical, tend to be a product of personal and
predispositional factors, as well as shared cultural influences, including
religious, literary, film, and gaming, all of which can lead to emotional and
less than rational responses. They can render people vulnerable to engage in
implausible conspiracy theories about the causes of illness and governmental
responses to it. They can also lead people to give credence to simplistic and
unscientific misrepresentations about medications and devices which are claimed
to prevent, treat or cure disease. In turn such vulnerability creates predatory
opportunities for the unscrupulous. This article notes the eruption of quackery
during the 1889-1892 Russian Flu and the 1918-1920 Spanish Flu and the emergence
during 2020 of spurious claims during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies
consumer protection strategies and interventions formulated during the 2020
pandemic. Using examples from the United States, Japan, Australia and the United
Kingdom, it argues that during a pandemic there is a need for three responses by
government to the risks posed by conspiracy theories and false representations:
calm, scientifically-based messaging from public health authorities; cease and
desist warnings directed toward those making extravagant or inappropriate claims;
and the taking of assertive and well publicised legal action against individuals
and entities that make false representations in order to protect consumers
rendered vulnerable by their emotional responses to the phenomenology of the
pandemic.
|*Truth Disclosure
[MESH]
|Australia
[MESH]
|Betacoronavirus
[MESH]
|COVID-19
[MESH]
|Coronavirus Infections/*epidemiology
[MESH]
|Fraud/*prevention & control/statistics & numerical data
[MESH]
|Health Behavior
[MESH]
|Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
[MESH]
|Humans
[MESH]
|Japan
[MESH]
|Pandemics
[MESH]
|Pneumonia, Viral/*epidemiology
[MESH]
|Public Health
[MESH]
|Public Health Practice/*statistics & numerical data
[MESH]
|Quackery/*prevention & control/statistics & numerical data
[MESH]
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