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They suffer from Covid, but they say it does not exist: denial crosses the borders of the squares and reaches the departments, in Italy and in the world. In hospitals, saturated by the second wave, some patients do not accept the reality of the infection, skeptical that it was the virus that reduced them in these conditions.
The latest testimony comes from the United States. “The most tragic thing is seeing them die in disbelief,” said Jodi Doering, a nurse at a South Dakota hospital interviewed by CNN. The health worker continued: “They keep saying that the virus doesn’t exist even when it’s killing them. His last words are sometimes: ‘Tell me the truth, what illness do I have?’ ”. A testimony, that of Doering, which joins that of other health workers, who meet the skepticism of those who try and try to save.
“They are defensive behaviors dictated by an archaic, almost primordial, tenacious fear. The fear is so unbearable that it leads the subject to deny any reason, even when they get sick, “Roberto Ferri, president of the Italian Society of Emergency Psychology, told HuffPost.
Returning to the news and staying within the Italian borders, just a few days ago to tell a story of denial in the pavilion in the pages of the newspaper La Stampa was Dr. Roberta Petrino, head of the Department of Medicine and Surgery for acceptance and urgency of the ‘ASL of Vercelli. “He had to deal with patients who, although clinically positive and suffering from the virus, claimed it was not Covid anyway, interpreting our medical intervention almost as a limitation.” Fortunately, few, but it happened “, said the doctor of the Piedmont hospital.
The psychologist Ferri maintains that “denialism takes root particularly well in the current historical context, in which the depersonalization of the globalized world contributes to the feeling of loneliness and the loss of the critical sense of the individual. Hostility towards intellectualism also plays a fundamental role, generating the conviction that one’s opinion can be as valid as science ”.
To contribute to the spread of these behaviors, argues Ferri, there are other factors. “The political exploitation of the pandemic and the suboptimal use of communication by the authorities, for example. The subjects ended up not feeling involved in the decisions made and in the anti-Covid measures adopted, seeing them fall from above. This factor has made it even more difficult to accept the rules and respect them, ”says the expert.
A feeling of lack of participation that often leads to street protests: right now in Berlin, thousands of people are demonstrating against the new restrictive policies launched by the German government to deal with the coronavirus. Witnesses spoke of an “aggressive atmosphere” from the many protesters huddled in the few hundred meters between the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building: the crowd, police reported, consisted of people of all ages and backgrounds, but also right-wing extremists and deniers.
Although to date there are more than 55.5 million infections and 1,337,559 victims caused by the pandemic (data from Johns Hopkins University updated to November 18, 2020, ed), there are still many people who deny the existence of the coronavirus. A belief to which the circulation of false information and fake news contributes through social networks and the media. “People feel disoriented and, with high levels of anxiety, they end up believing everything. Being told ‘everything is a hoax’ serves to lower blood pressure, so the subject receives the ‘no-Covid’ message and makes it his own ”, says Roberto Ferri.
The president of the Italian Society for Emergency Psychology underlines how, paradoxically, denial can be compared to one of the most obvious psychological repercussions of the pandemic: the “shack syndrome”, or the fear of leaving and leaving home, the place that during the months of confinement made us feel safe, protected from external agents. “They are two sides of the same coin. In both cases, there is a lot of heartbreak at the base. If those who suffer from the ‘shack syndrome’ tend to lock themselves in the house for fear of contagion, avoiding any type of social contact, those who deny the virus react by rejecting reality ”, says Ferri.
A reality that can be denied even in extreme conditions, such as those of American patients at the end of life who, assisted by nurse Jodi Doering, affirmed that they could not be affected by Covid-19. “It is not impossible that denial can get to this point. The mental mechanism can lead the patient to believe that something or someone wanted to punish him and that the virus is not the origin of his discomfort, ”says Ferri. And on the denial abroad, the psychologist points out that “the American experience is influenced by the particular narcissism and individualism of that society. Let’s not forget the strong sense of freedom of the American people: an element that, in general, makes it difficult to comply with the collective rules.
In the mind of a denier, perhaps something happens not unlike what happens in certain forms of dementia in which areas of the brain receive false information and send it to the part of the brain in charge of rational thinking that strives to give a meaning to that information. The part of the brain dedicated to rational thinking packages that false information to make it convincing, “biologist Barbara Gallavotti said recently during her speech during the DiMartedì broadcast on La7, citing the theories of neuroscientist Earl Miller. We wanted to ask her. to Dr. Ferri what he thinks of this association: “More than by mechanisms similar to those of some forms of dementia, I believe that denial is usually fueled by mutual influence between individuals, by the imitation of the behavior of others”, he concludes.
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