Renata Salecl

When dealing with something traumatic, anxiety-provoking, or hard to grasp, like the pandemic, people often embrace ignorance and denial, instead of knowledge and facts. Ignorance and denial might be the only way some can deal with the radical changes that are happening in their lives. Although negation, denial, and ignorance are nothing new, they seem to be in overdrive at a time when information has never been easier to obtain. The massive amount of information that is available to us has, however, contributed to tunnel vision, information bias, and bubbles. These amplify people’s confusion about what their social reality looks like, what counts as fact and what is scientifically proven knowledge. The pandemic has taught us the importance of acknowledging the unknown. This is why transparency, honesty and understanding are of help to people when they are navigating through the challenging pandemic times. In many countries, these skills have sadly been in short supply.