Those who spread wrong information and lies to other people, for whatever reason or belief, can create an environment for a volatile situation to explode into carnage and destruction.

Even not informing people in a situation can also lead to unsavory outcomes. History has many examples of misinformation, lies and lack of information leading into deadly outcomes. Wars throughout the ages were fought when information communicated between parties did not reach amicable conclusions, were misinterpreted or were not received by the intended audience.

Today we face a global pandemic – COVID 19 - where misinformation is playing a significant part against the ability of governments of the world and international organisations to address it. The world has faced many health crises plus natural and man-made calamities since the end of World War Two in 1945. But no amount of global misinformation and public debate has engaged public opinion to what has shrouded COVID 19 since its detection in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019.

There are very dedicated persons and entities that have mesmerized the psyche of vast sections of the world’s population to view COVID 19 and its vaccines differently than to see it as a straightforward health pandemic. Different conspiracy theories have been propagated against COVID 19 and the vaccines that were produced by the multi-billion kina pharmaceutical companies around the world.

The widespread access to information and communications technologies, mobile telecommunication systems and online platforms has aided the work of conspiracy theorists and the those with extreme perspectives or counter-perspectives against the mainstream knowledge and science around COVID 19 and the vaccines. Modern technology has made it so easy for the antagonists to promote their agenda against mainstream knowledge and science around COVID 19 and the vaccines.

Today, if someone cooks up a conspiracy theory or a claim against COVID 19 and the vaccines for whatever reason, be it pseudo-science, religious belief or whatever, in some remote site in one corner of the world, it can be instantly transmitted across the planet. This can be done with minimum costs but maximum effect using the modern technology we have today. Such misleading information can easily land in the hands of any average person with a smart phone in places like Papua New Guinea.

In a country like PNG with one of the highest illiteracy rates in the Western Pacific region and poor socio-economic indicators affecting people, well-concocted misleading information or pseudo-science about a global pandemic can have unforeseen consequences. At this point in, time I will not be surprised that the rise in COVID-19 and the Delta variant cases in Goroka, Port Moresby, some other parts of the Highlands and elsewhere is the result of people being dissuaded by conspiracy theories and pseudo-science from taking the global pandemic seriously.

There were a number of big gatherings in Goroka, Walume in Imbonggu and other parts of the highlands and around PNG at the time of the 46th Independence Anniversary last month. Few weeks later, we now have major COVID 19 outbreaks in those towns and provinces where the major independence gatherings were staged. Authorities in Eastern Highlands have already come out public and pinpointed the culprit event of the super-spread of COVID 19 and its Delta variant to be the “mini show” hosted in the learned enclave of University of Goroka, of all places.

Others on Facebook are accusing the super spread event in the Southern Highlands to be the Cultural Show at Walume in Imbonggu where Prime Minister James Marape attended and many popular musicians such as Estapacifica turned up and performed for three days around the time of the Independence Anniversary. Videos and photos posted on Facebook about the recent independence anniversary events showed that the arenas were over-crowded and members of the public did not wear face masks, let alone maintain social distancing.

In these sorts of places, the ordinary people, who are the majority, tend to buy into conspiracy theories and pseudo-science, particularly when such misleading information is sugar-coated with slanted Christian messages or claims. Our ordinary people in the suburbs, urban settlements and rural villages love their Christian faith irrespective of whatever dogmatic bias or slant it comes to them, owing to our historical heritage. So our ordinary people will buy into anything that is stated on Facebook or in a face-to-face communication with an ounce of Christianity. As a result, many of our ordinary folks tended to pay a total disrespect to the hard science and medical information and evidence around COVID 19 and the vaccines.

I have on a daily basis encountered people standing up to defend the conspiracy theories and the pseudoscience sugarcoated with slants on Christian messages in the Bible. Sadly, many of the subscribers to the conspiracy theories and pseudo-science are educated Papua New Guineans. The involvement of educated people in this sad scenario provides a deadly groundswell of people to die from COVID-19 and its Delta variant.

Look at what is happening in Goroka, Port Moresby, Mt Hagen, Mendi and elsewhere – people are dying of COVID-19, and many of them are educated professionals. So I ask myself, where are the conspiracy theorists and individuals who unashamedly promoted pseudoscience with total misrepresentation of certain messages in the Bible when people are dying by the hour in places like Goroka at this time? They should hold their head in shame, that they promoted nonsense that has contributed to deaths from COVID 19 that may have been avoided.

When educated people are knowingly believing in and promoting conspiracy theories and pseudo-science with slanted misrepresentation of Bible passages, they are creating a deadly environment for our people. Misinformation and wrong information is deadly.