Six Indicators of Pseudoscience
Post #708
A biology book available to view online gives 6 indicators of pseudoscience, where a proponent dishonestly claims to have a scientific basis for viewpoints proposed. The image just below is a free to use/reuse poster from the Library of Congress.
URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/98518267/
Here are these 6 signs of pseudoscience:
The use of vague, exaggerated, or untestable claims
An over-reliance on confirmation rather than refutation
A lack of openness to testing by other experts
An absence of progress in advancing knowledge
Personalization of issues
The use of misleading language
Regarding COVID policy, health officials are guilty of many of these indicators of the practice of pseudoscience. Here are examples:
1
When officials said face-masks will cut COVID spread by a lot, they were using vague and exaggerated claims. The evidence base up to the end of 2019 did not support that.
2
When they said that Phase 3 trials had firmly established safety, they ignored the unprecedented mountain of VAERS reports, including a published report of the first 6 months [ PMC8901181 ] showing 15 death reports per million doses, refuting that claim of safety.
3
When they tried to make it so that data would be withheld from the public for 75 years, and still (3 years later) have not released the data on breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths, they lacked openness.
4
When they rely on false IHME models to make the claim that they saved millions of lives, then they prevent the advancement of knowledge regarding the real effects of rigid, regimented, draconian “public health” interventions.
5
When they blame the morbidity/mortality of the pandemic on those who refused to “shelter -in-place” or to “mask-up” or to take their experimental COVID shots, then they personalize a science/medical issue.
6
When they said that COVID shots prevented infection, hospitalization, or death — but simultaneously waited up to 3 weeks after dosing before they even start counting infection, hospitalization, or death among those who took the shot, then they use intentionally-misleading language.
Health officials who practice such pseudoscience should not be trusted.
Tom a class on advocacy a decade ago. “Personalization of issues” was a form of advocacy, AKA propaganda.
These six points also describe conspiracy theories rather well.