N ot a m e m b e r ? J o i n at a s so c iate d h a i rp rofe s sio n a ls .c o m 43
Notes
1. World Health Organization, Policy Statement on Data Sharing by the
World Health Organization in the Context of Public Health Emergencies,
(Geneva: W HO, 2016), www.who.int/ihr/procedures/SPG_data_
sharing.pdf.
2. Max Roser, Hannah Ritchie, and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, "Statistics and
Research: Coronavirus Pandemic (COV ID-19)," Our World in Data,
updated May 12, 2020, www.ourworldindata.org/coronavirus.
3. Tara Haelle, "Why It's Important to Push Back on 'Plandemic'—
and how to do it," Forbes, May 8, 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/
tarahaelle/2020/05/08/why-its-important-to-push-back-on-plandemic-
and-how-to-do-it.
4. Jon D. Lee, An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape our Perceptions of
Disease (Boulder: Utah State University Press, 2014), 2–3.
5. P. M. Todd, "Heuristics for Decision and Choice," International
Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2001, www.sciencedirect.
com/topics/neuroscience/heuristics.
6. Michael Shermer, "Patternicity: Finding Meaningful Patterns in
Meaningless Noise," Scientific American 299, no. 6 (Dec 2008): 48,
https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1208-48.
7. Kevin R. Foster and Hanna Kokko, "The Evolution of Superstitious
and Superstition-Like Behavior," Proceedings of the Royal Society B
276, no. 1654 (September 2008): 31–37, https://doi.org/10.1098/
rspb.2008.0981; Sophie Fyfe et al., "Apophenia, Theory of Mind, and
Schizotypy: Perceiving Meaning and Intentionality in Randomness,"
Cortex 44, no. 10 (November–December 2008): 1316–25, https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.cortex.2007.07.009.
8. Andrea Kitta, The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore
(Louisville, CO: Utah State University Press, 2019), 5–7.
At the beginning, I explained why it is
almost impossible for human nature to accept
holes in such life-changing narratives, but
this may well be a valuable lesson for many
communities, particularly those with healing
and well-being as a vocation. The best we can
do to shape those narratives into something
that helps, rather than hindering the efforts
being made by physicians, researchers, and the
general public, is focus on developing rational
coping mechanisms. It can help to understand
how "noise" and subconscious patternicity
hinder us from doing so, and the links in the
Notes below provide many places to start.
By developing rational responses,
understanding the need to link these to
localized narratives so that they can be
better understood, finding ways to explain
them to others, and strengthening our own
resilience, we ensure our survival, both
physical and mental. This may be the most
valuable tool for healing when the time
comes to emerge from self-isolation and
return to healing our communities.
