OVERTURNING ZIKA

Bock details the unscientific response to the Zika virus panic in Brazil in 2015 and reflects on its ramifications for today.

As the author observes, the emergence of the Zika virus in 2015 in Brazil quickly sparked a wave of alarm despite a paucity of scientific evidence justifying it. In fact, Zika was discovered in 1947 in Uganda and has never been linked to any major illness. Also, it is physically and genomically all but identical to dengue fever, making the two viruses notoriously difficult to distinguish. Some linked a rise of microcephaly to Zika, but microcephaly is also exceedingly difficult to diagnose, and the number of known cases, despite the terror widely spread through media channels, remained statistically insignificant. Then, inexplicably, Zika simply vanished from the globe, despite the absence of any vaccine to counter it. Bock, equipped with 30 years of experience as a primary care physician, astutely dissects the way in which a scrupulous process of rigorous research was bypassed in favor of a manufactured drama, one that, to this day, has never been adequately corrected. “Despite billions of research dollars spent and thousands of investigative papers created within the instantly busy Zika research field, all of the original concepts of the Zika–microcephaly connection seem fairly intact and unchallenged within the scientific community.” The author painstakingly marshals mountains of evidence, all lucidly explained, in favor of this thesis, and convincingly paints a less idealistic portrait of scientific progress than is often imagined. Bock connects the failings of the response to Zika to Covid-19, another pandemic that ignited more panic than was consistent with the evidence available, a remarkable discussion since Dr. Anthony Fauci interpreted the global management of Zika as a “roadmap for future challenges.” The author delivers a fascinating and meticulous account of the ways in which the major health organizations in the world overstated the alleged crisis—all of them spread panic, but none of them conducted the kinds of empirical investigations necessary to fully comprehend Zika’s impact. Bock explores possible reasons for these missteps in a way that avoids the self-aggrandizing posturing of panoramic conspiracy theories. Instead, he considers an array of reasons for the failure—including political opportunism (pro-choice activists used Zika to push for relaxed restrictions on abortion), careerism, and the sensationalistic tendencies of the press.

The author is at his best contrasting idealistic ideas about the nature of the scientific process with what actually happens (the latter being the outgrowth of the messiness of human motivation): “Science has the pretense or appearance of its facts being scientifically derived; however in reality there may be some similarity with the process, through popularity and consensus, of determining celebrity or fame – including ‘we know it when we see it.’ ”

A provocative peek into the real-life mechanics of the scientific process.