Feeding My Ignorance

....is magic!  The coronavirus pandemic has triggered two different posts - this being the first - which are not necessarily about the virus itself, but comment on some aspects of life that the current outbreak highlights rather well.  We hear a lot these days about invisible illnesses and - whilst covid-19 is not always such, sometimes there are no symptoms and neither the person who is ill, nor their friends and relatives will have any idea that they are carrying and spreading the virus.

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This post actually formulated in my head a few weeks ago - before the story of covid-19 had taken hold.  Those who have actually read any of my blog posts (assuming that anyone has) may have come across the fact that there is a sister blog on the site chronicling some of the early days of my encounter with chronic lymphocitic leukeamia (CLL).  I was diagnosed with this almost seven years ago and I am currently on a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of a new drug to be used in the fight against this disease.

This is a disease which is almost invisible.  I did have some visible symptoms - notably swollen lymph nodes - but for the most part no one would know I had the disease.  Indeed I didn't know before diagnosis and even today there is little that I can point to that will confirm that I still have the disease.  The "bad bits" that signify that CLL is something that I have can only be detected using blood tests and the like.

So - every now and then I go to the hospital - donate a few vials of blood - wait an hour or so - then my consultant tells me how I am doing.  I believe her!!  Other tests (CT Scans, bone marrow biopsies and more) can confirm - or otherwise - the presence of the disease and how bad it is.  Advances in science have made this all possible - and - advances in science have produced the drug that I am taking which (I am reliably informed) has made things much better in my body.

I have faith in the science, however, from my standpoint it has to be said that there is little difference between science and magic.  Cynically, my blood could be just thrown away and some random set of numbers generated to represent my current state of health - I would not know the difference.  (Can I just stress here that I DO NOT believe that they are throwing away my blood!!)  Getting worse or getting better does not change how I feel very much.

Equally with the tablets that I am taking - I choose to believe my consultant on that as well - these are the right things to swallow - five in the morning - three in the evening - and they are helping me combat the disease.  Seemingly so.  However, there is no 'proof' except the previously mentioned blood tests.....

I understand what the experts tell me that these drugs are doing - at least theoretically - but I can only take it on faith that what is happening to cells in my body matches what they tell me is happening.  The science, I am sure, is sound but I recognise that it is also way beyond my knowledge of the way things work.  So I take these magic pills and I get better:D

The placebo effect is well known and, to be sure, I have no idea whether the pills they have given me really inhibit receptors in my cells or just make me think they do - and, to go to the next level, I'm far from sure it makes any difference since some of our health is determined by our minds anyway.

So I will keep taking the tablets - and they will, I hope, keep me reasonably healthy.  Through it all I still feel a little bit like a "low information" individual on the topic regardless of how much I read, because the fundamentals are out of my store of knowledge/experience.  Just about everyone takes some sort of pill some of the time - believing that they "do what it says on the tin" without a shred of knowledge that actually backs that up.

In the past "magic" was perhaps more 'popular' because there were more things that nobody understood - but to all intents and purposes just about all of medicine may as well be magic.  We cannot tell what (if anything) is happening in our gut when we take the tablets - but somehow we feel better (although not all the time) and we believe that the medicine has "worked".

Can I again stress that the purpose of this is not to doubt the science behind the medicines - I truly believe in the skill and knowledge of the medical experts.  It illustrates (and this goes to the heart of this website's title) that as soon as we get out of our own little circle of knowledge we become truly ignorant.  Which is fine.... what is less fine is that so many people choose - consciously or unconsciously - to ignore that and to believe that because they know so much about one thing they automatically know about everything.

There are plenty of examples of this - it is a well known cognitive failing - a very recent one was during the president's visit to CDC last week.....

And this concern was on display at the CDC press conference when Trump took time to talk at length about his own intelligence, in part by referencing a “great, super genius” uncle who taught at MIT.

“I like this stuff. I really get it,” Trump said. “People are surprised that I understand it. Every one of these doctors say, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability. Maybe I should’ve done that instead of running for president.”

Hmmm.... there is so much that could be said - although much was already said by the American late night comedians!

We all need to acknowledge our ignorances - and accept them - I've said that before here.  The alternative is that we blunder around showing our ignorances!!!  If that means that I've got to regard the medical treatment I am receiving as magic - that's fine by me.  Plenty people take painkillers like paracetamol - I'd be surprised if more than a handful could describe accurately how they work.