Since when did opinions outweigh facts?
By: Niamh Hislop
Tags: Opinion, Lockdown, Misinformation, Covid 19, Vaccine Hesitancy

Sure, you’re entitled to your opinion. But claiming it as fact is a problem.

Engin Akyurt_Pixabay.

“I’m entitled to my opinion.” Christ, I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve read that recently.

Picture this. Someone posts an anti-vaccine rant on Facebook claiming that mRNA vaccines modify our genes. I reply to their statement in an effort to correct the misinformation and explain that mRNA is destroyed within hours after it’s been administered and can’t possibly alter our genetic code. I know this because the data says so.

And more than once, I’ve been told that by calling out this misinformation, I’m being unkind.

I have a problem with this too.

It’s not unkind to call out an untruth. When I make an assertion based on evidence-based facts, I’m not attacking you. I’m presenting facts. Of course, you are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to present your opinion as fact. If being called out on false information makes you feel uneasy, that’s on you. If you interpret my honesty as hostility, then that’s also on you.

“Accountability feels like an attack when you’re not ready to acknowledge how your behaviour harms others.” Steve Maraboli

You may wonder why I’m compelled to respond? I could just mind my own business and scroll on, finding hilarious memes to chuckle at. Lockdown affords me plenty of time for that after all.

But my compulsion to correct misinformation stems from a deep desire to stop living in lockdown. There’s parts of lockdown that I adore, but it feels like time has been suspended for too long now.

It’s also a response to the fatigue I hear in my healthcare worker friend’s voices when they discuss how hard this past 18 months has been.

It’s grieving for a loved one that was one of 4.5 million people who died from what is now a somewhat preventable disease.

And it’s because I am sick and tired of people asserting something as fact when it’s clearly fucking not.

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” Aldous Huxley

When COVID-19 first reared its ugly head, our scientists scrambled to find treatments to preserve life and if possible, prevent infection in the first place. And they did it. Using techniques and technologies that have been known and tested for decades, they developed what the world needed, vaccines. It might seem like it happened quickly, but they were put through the same rigorous testing as any other vaccine.

Having witnessed some of the effort that’s required to launch a safe, effective vaccine to market previously, I can tell you that developing the vaccine is only half the battle. Each vaccine is required to undergo pre-clinical trials, as well as Phase 1, 2 and 3 vaccine trials. And then the politics start. Getting the vaccines approved and licensed is a laborious process of developing economic justification and lobbying parliament to get it on the vaccine register.

Unless that is, you’re in a pandemic, and the lives of millions of people depend on it being delivered to vaccination centres as soon as possible. Lucky for us, our governments recognised that need outweighed politics and gloriously not one, but two, safe and effective vaccines were approved for use.

Now, at this juncture, I think it’s worth mentioning that there’s a few noisy people that seem to believe that having a COVID-19 vaccine administered is a choice that’s made in some sort of vacuum. Which I find hard to get my head around.

The vaccine has been made available to us, because in a world without lockdowns, it’s either the vaccine or COVID-19. Exposure to this highly virulent virus is inevitable if we continue to live as we did pre-lockdowns. And yes, unfortunately, there is a small individual risk with every vaccination. But there is a much greater public health risk without it.

We’re not being asked to vaccinate for nothing. There is a real possibility that many of us, yes even you, will get infected and become sick or even die from COVID-19.

And yet, there’s still a vaccine hesitancy here in Australia. Why?

“It doesn’t seem to matter how often vaccines are proved safe. When people don’t like facts, they ignore them.” Micheal Specter

I believe that the sharing of vaccine misinformation has had a major part to play in fuelling people’s vaccine hesitancy. Thank goodness, we have a wealth of brilliant minds that spend their free time countering anti-science falsehoods (including anti-mask, anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine rants). But after following numerous scientists for many months, it’s evident that several of them are becoming frustrated with the incessant repetition of ridiculous claims.

After all, it’s very easy for a conspiracy theorist to make a spurious claim, but it takes so much longer to debunk that claim using peer-reviewed evidence. Then, just when they’ve debunked something, the claimant will move the goal posts and come up with another cray-cray story.

And that crazy bullshit will spread like fire and eventually get in the way of my meme browsing. And honestly, I’m over it.

Because here I am, on my 224th day of lockdown still seeing people attack the only realistic option we have to mitigate this pandemic. And I wish that the people who are posting that bullshit would just stop. Please.

You do know don’t you, that the longer you spread those falsehoods, the longer we’ll be in this mess? And yet, you’ll assert your right to post vaccine misinformation. And feign hurt when you’re challenged.

So, sure, I’ll concede your right to your opinion. But do us all a favour and try being informed instead of just opinionated.