I couldnt believe how well I was sleeping, she says.
Under their influence, he started questioning whether or not COVID-19 was real.
Or if it could be because of something other than a virus, like 5G technology.
Masks didnt make sense to him, because he believed that the real defense against illness was individual immunity.
He believes strongly in his right to sovereignty over his own body, says Katie.
Keith stopped trusting science and mainstream media, all because of what he was learning on Instagram.
psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University
The COVID conspiracy tipping point, however, came on on May 4, 2020.
This is when film producer Mikki Willis quietly released a video titled Plandemic to social media.
Some say that COVID-19 symptoms are the result of 5G mobile networks.
In December, Dr. Northrup told her followers that the COVID-19 vaccine would remove human empathy.
(Think meditation and acupuncture.)
Of course, there is a place for holistic health in the fight against COVID-19.
But disillusionment with mainstream medicine has led some to question all things tied to science, full-stop.
A subset of people in this camp then brought the same skepticism to information about COVID-19.
(To be crystal clear, these claims are not true.)
psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University
In wellness circles theres a deeply embedded belief, Remski explains, in health as a moral virtue.
If youre weak or infirm or disabled, then youre failing at the meritocracy of bodies, he says.
This leaves them looking for other perspectives.
Indeed, many COVID-19 conspiracy theorists arguments have New-Age spiritual overtones.
Humanity is undergoing a paradigm shift, and a secret group of dark forces is trying to stop it.
But theres another factor thats made the wellness space ripe for brainwashing: a culture of magnetic influencers-as-experts.
Now thats happening in a really dangerous context.
So why would they now begin asking for proof to back their COVID-19 claims?
Influencers often use more assuredand comfortinglanguage than you might hear from a scientist or epidemiologist.
(Scientific language purposefully hedges in this way because research is ongoing and the scientific landscape is ever-changing.)
They tell their followers not to trust authority figures, while at the same time positioning themselves as authorities.
This echo chamber makes it even more difficult for many to discern between trustworthy and untrustworthy sources.
These wellness evangelists are certain, while science is still learning.
Their enemy is visible; sciences enemy is invisible.
We believe in these conspiracies because wewantto believe in them.
Comparisons between COVID-19 guidelines and Nazi Germany are often invoked to heighten this fear.
But here in America, the worlds wellness-industry epicenter, more than 500,000 people are dead due to COVID-19.
That, to at least some degree, is a number unnecessarily inflated by denialism.
If youre dying with COVID, you want an ICU, says Dr. Ramsey.
*Names have been changed.
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