In some places in East Africa, ideas we might marginalize and call "conspiracy theories" in America, like COVID being a fake pandemic, are considered common sen

In some places in East Africa, ideas we might marginalize and call "conspiracy theories" in America, like COVID being a fake pandemic, are considered common sense knowledge [0]. Ideas and beliefs aren't supposed to influence the actual health of individuals, but they do. This is why modern science takes great care to control for the healing effects of placebo during clinical trials via blind and double-blind protocols. The opposite phenomenon of nocebo, expectations of falling ill leading to physiologically measurable illness, is rarely discussed. These psycho-physiological effects occur independently of personality traits like intelligence and gullibility.[1] --- [0] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/covid-skepticism-and-[vaccine-hesitancy-is-widespread-in-tanzania/ar-AAOb85O https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/covid-skepticism-and-[v... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo