Sad pseudoscience: COVID-19 conspiracy theory spreads like a virus

In September 2020, Yan limeng, a Chinese virologist, published an explosive paper, claiming that China had created a deadly coronavirus in a research laboratory. Then scientists from Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and other first-class universities in the United States studied his paper at a rare speed.

American scientists have concluded that there are serious flaws in this paper. According to a new online journal created by MIT Press to examine sars-cov-2 claims, Yan’s claims are “sometimes groundless and unsupported by data.”.

But in an era where anyone can post anything online with just a few clicks, this response is not enough to stop Yan’s controversial claim from spreading rapidly and gaining millions of viewers’ attention on social media and Fox News. According to experts who study misinformation, this situation highlights how systems built to promote scientific understanding can be used to disseminate politically charged claims that are distinct from scientific consensus.

According to false information researchers at Harvard University, Yan limeng’s paper on zenodo has been viewed more than one million times, possibly making it the most widely read study on the origin of the coronavirus pandemic, despite several fierce scientific criticisms and extensive news reports on its so-called defects. Their conclusion is that online science websites are vulnerable to what they call “invisible science”, which is to put “the cloak of scientific legitimacy” on suspicious research.

Yan limeng, a former postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, fled to the United States in April this year. In an interview with the Washington Post, she admitted that online science sites are vulnerable to abuse, but denied that her story was a case study of the issue.

“We attach great importance to misinformation, so this is the problem we want to solve,” said Anais rassat, a spokesman for the European Organization for nuclear research “We don’t think that removing this report is the best solution. We want it to stay and prove why experts think it’s wrong. ”

However, mainstream researchers see Yan limeng’s ideas spread rapidly on the Internet, much faster than they can respond and refute. They are troubled by this experience – they are convinced that their ability to spread misinformation far exceeds that of well-known social media websites. Any online platform without strong and expensive protection is equally vulnerable.

“It’s similar to our debates with Facebook and twitter. Stefano M. bertozzi, editor in chief of the online journal “quick review: cowid-19” published by the Massachusetts Institute of technology, questioned Yan’s claim.

Bertozzi added, “most scientists are not interested in a fierce competition in cyberspace.”

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