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Pandemic: From Science and Common Sense to Scientificsm
León Ferder1, Felipe Inserra2 and Walter Manucha3*
1Universidad Maimónides, Argentina
2Universidad Austral, Argentina
3Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina
Submission:September 01, 2021; Published: October 29, 2021
*Corresponding author: Walter Manucha, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Argentina
How to cite this article: León F, Felipe I, Walter M. Pandemic: From Science and Common Sense to Scientificsm. Palliat Med Care Int J. 2021; 4(2): 555633. DOI: 10.19080/PMCIJ.2021.04.555633
Abstract
The Ebola virus (EBOV) was named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (previously Zaire). All afflicted nations reported a total of 27,741 EVD cases and 11,284 deaths as of July 22, 2015. Prior to the 2013-2016 EBOV epidemic, the number of confirmed human cases in EBOV outbreaks was very low, with no more than 425 cases each outbreak between 1976 and 2009, compared to an estimated 28,646 cases between 2013 and 2016. Monkey pox was initially found in 1958, when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in research colonies of monkeys, hence the name. SARS is predominantly a respiratory disease, with the maximum concentration of SARS-CoV found in the respiratory tract, though this virus is also identifiable in other organs and tissues, as well as in stool. COVID-19 affected almost all countries altogether and numerous innovative and developing technologies are mandatory to tackle various complications caused by the extent of the epidemic in the health organizations.
Keywords: Ebola; Monkey pox; SARS-CoV; COVID-19; Outbreaks
Editorial
Science is all knowledge or knowledge constituted by observation, systematic study (experimentation), and reasoned nature, society, and thought. It requires the formulation and verification of hypotheses and methodologies appropriate to the central objective of the study and the most current state of knowledge.
The primary objective of science is to discover the laws that govern the phenomena of reality, understand and explain them. From this, the most profound meaning of science is to describe, explain and predict such phenomena to improve human life. Science is not neutral, nor does it exist by itself, but results from our creation. Any serious scientist knows that science is by no means infallible and that the truths of today suppose the errors of tomorrow (Gaston Bachelard). In this sense, science could be defined as the art of breaking dogmas by reconstructing what we call “truth.”
Although science guides new knowledge development, it coexists with another essential element - of proven usefulness in humanity - which is common sense. According to the epistemologist James Conant, as “a series of concepts and behaviors that have proven very satisfactorily to be of practical use for humanity.” Therefore, it is a handy tool for human survival. Thus, common sense is not based on classical evidence, but on a solid conceptual rationality that we can call “biological plausibility” in the biomedical sciences, and that supports it. Of particular interest, science and common sense may differ because they respond to different currents of thought, but they coexist as complementary elements and centrally influence decisions and human behavior. Science has a methodology that necessarily requires verification and not immediate times, while common sense, its complement, must govern decisions while we wait for the evidence that science provides.
On the other hand, we call scientism the position that affirms the universal applicability of the scientific method and approach and the idea that empirical science constitutes the most accredited worldview or the most valuable part of human knowledge, excluding other points of view. View, including common sense, when the experimental evidence has not yet arrived or is conflicting. Scientism considers that the scientific method is the only thing applicable to any area of life since it is the only thing that generates reliable results. Thus, scientism transforms science into dogmatic, infallible, and is a barrier to the progress of scientific and philosophical knowledge about man and the world created by him.
The political and economic interests of the world, together with weak and incapable institutions, led to panic and its shameful exploitation in the name of “science” and discrediting other possibilities of proven usefulness for humanity, such as common sense. A clear example of this has been how the closures of educational institutions and businesses were handled - useless and prolonged restrictions on movement - that took people’s patience to the limit. Regardless of who the actual risk groups were. For its part, science made significant advances in vaccines, but regulatory bodies in the name of “science” - not well understood - delayed its use for unclear purposes. Also, the concealment of the origin of the pandemic was sadly used and not yet fully known.
Many wonders, why set a date to vaccinate a healthy 12-yearold boy and not an 11-year-old with diabetes? Is that science in times of pandemic? Moreover, where is common sense? Why stop implementing a vaccine used in hundreds of millions of individuals due to a thromboembolic effect with minimal mortality in a few dozen people? It is known that this type of adverse reaction is common in all drug development. In this regard, does anyone wonder the number of deaths from the use of over-the-counter drugs in the world, such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs? And, what is worse, do they prohibit its use?
At the same time that the most assertive sanitary measures are taken -or not-, hundreds of thousands of individuals in the world continue to die from infections. What is the criterion that protects human beings? Why are vaccines control and approval bodies slow in their approval, and why do they not jointly apply scientific and common sense criteria to respond to social need? Limit situations such as panic in the face of a pandemic facilitate the confusion of science and common sense as scientism, thus falling into dangerous situations for the lives of individuals.
It is difficult to understand why the sentence “this is science” has been accepted as the seal of an unquestionable divine word, and deepening, since we speak of science, where is the evidence? Evidence is decisive proof in a process of clear and manifest certainty that cannot be doubted. Lack of evidence is not evidence either. The key to science is scientific thinking, rather than evidence. Evidence is valid guidance, not absolute truth. Evidence is a verified and accurate sample obtained in an investigation – but- within the framework of a context, and the laws that explain how things work and that emerge from science are general, not particular.
To do science we must work as a team, without selfishness, with adaptation to the times of a pandemic, without falling into dogmas, with serious information, to fundamentally reduce morbidity and mortality. Science lacks ideologies and requires common sense. The reality is not what is seen, but what should have been thought (Gaston Bachelard).
