Pseudoscience During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic remarkably changed the landscape of scientific research. Preprint and open-access publication culture has been accelerated, low-quality research has been disseminated, and scientists have been forced to counteract the pseudoscience amid the infodemic. This paper discusses scientific discourses that were originally legitimate scientific research but have been “pseudoscientified” amid the pandemic by the media and politicians. This phenomenon, called pseudoscientification of science, had structural backgrounds which existed before the pandemic. Through an examination of examples, we identified their structural problems: constant pressure on researchers to publish, eye-catching press releases, and report approval systems that give the appearance of completely proven effectiveness. Through such measures, politicians cherry-pick the results of scientific studies and try to retain public support by obtaining emergency approvals for drugs; such misconducts have led to the pseudoscientification of science during the pandemic. To counteract these issues, we need to first solve these structural problems.