Plagued by doubt and viral misinformation: the need for evidence-based use of historical disease images

Abstract

Abstract:The digitisation of historical disease images and their widespread availability on the internet have been a boon to education and research, but with unintended

Social Responses to Epidemics Depicted by Cinema

“…Second, the public perception of how epidemic diseases behave is substantially influenced by the media and popular culture (2,4,6,30); parts of this perception are sometimes adopted as scientific facts (31,32). Similar issues have recently been brought to our attention regarding the widespread and incorrect diagnostic use of images of persons with a disease that is wrongly assumed to be plague (33,34) and media perpetuation of several recent misguided anxieties over how the Ebola virus is spread (35,36).…”

Dangers of Noncritical Use of Historical Plague Data

“…A further problem with not knowing the original sources is that equal weight in terms of accuracy and reliability cannot necessarily be attributed to different reference types (e.g., resources allowing for quantification of mortality rates, administrative sources with qualitative direct mentions of plague, and narrative sources with qualitative direct mentions of plague) ( 17 ). This problem is magnified further in light of increasing interest in germ theory‒based nosology and the retrospective diagnosis of diseases ( 1 ). Medieval historians question the methods used for identifying diseases in the past ( 27 , 28 ).…”

“…In an article by Jones and Nevell ( 1 ), the authors argue that improved access to historical data through digitization projects has benefited research in different scientific fields. However, they also point out that digitization has some unintended consequences.…”

“…However, they also point out that digitization has some unintended consequences. A key issue they identified is the loosening of the rigorous standards of evidence and interpretation scientific researchers typically demand within their own disciplines ( 1 ). Although scholars regularly reprimand colleagues for misrepresenting evidence and misusing data to make arguments that their material cannot support, such issues are less frequently addressed when data sets transcend the border from one scientific discipline to the next.…”

On the misuses of medical history

“…Many images of so-called plague used in current scientific publications actually depict patients suffering from leprosy. 1 Another example is when commonly repeated claims about historical persons or events are lifted from earlier scientific or medical writings, without checking whether professional historical scholarship has revised earlier interpretations. A medical article on vaginismus might dutifully repeat that the condition was first reported by the female medical writer "Trotula" in the 16 th century, perpetuating a confusion debunked over 30 years ago between an authorial fiction, "Trotula," and an authentic 12 th -century healer named Trota.…”