Patricia leads a team of researchers exploring concerns around fakes, fabrications and falsehoods in Global Health. She shared her important work into how people, places and processes are involved in the complexities of falsehoods. Through a focus on her global health research she brought the topic to life, providing new insights and stimulating engaging discussion.
Patricia began by getting the audience thinking about fakes with examples from the art world. She discussed how forgers are experts at creating things that seem authentic and fool experts; and how people can be easily manipulated if what is presented is plausible. She asked the question ‘Who has the power to decide that one thing is fake and another is real?’, and explained that fakes often exist at times of great social upheaval.
She shared examples of various films though the ages, including films that questioned the value of binary opposites, and explored shadows (or grey areas) and the importance of vantage points.
We heard how David E H Jones’ perpetual motion machine - invented intentionally as a fake - fooled the scientific community, even though he explained clearly that it was a fake and defied the laws of physics.
Patirica then talked about the COVID-19 ‘infodemic’ when we saw an avalanche of fake news and overt questioning of scientific experts. She encouraged us to think about why this takes place and what happens when people don’t believe established science.
“Conspiracy theories are the belief that an event or situation is the outcome of a secret plan; fake stories are really difficult to dispel when there is a trust deficit. Myths can be dangerous, sometimes life threatening. It’s important to understand why these myths exist as they can often be a way for people who haven’t got a lot of power to get power. They can be a vehicle for concern for structural things that people are worried about.”
Her interesting and entertaining talk really engaged the audience and was followed by a lively Q&A session where topics like AI, social media, and access to healthcare and medicines.
Commenting on the problems surrounding fake medicines and Professor Kingori “Removing all the emotion it's just a really simple economic supply and demand. Are you going to give people what they want? If not, they're going to try and find it elsewhere.”
At the end of the lecture Elizabeth Blackwell Institute Director, Rachael Gooberman-Hill, presented Professor Kingori with a Bristol Blue Glass vase, gifted by way of a legacy donation from descendants of Elizabeth Blackwell’s family.
Rachael said: “Huge thanks to Patricia for her thought-provoking, lecture on the world of forgeries, fakes and falsehoods. It was fascinating to consider some of what constitutes a fake, why and how fakes happen, as well as their impact on society and health. It was great to see the audience so engaged in the topic.”
Feedback from the audience:
“Very interesting talk from an interesting speaker”
“Excellent!!”
“Fantastic, wide ranging and insightful talk and discussion.”
“Very interesting and thought provoking . Will consider the multiple truths and reason behind potential mistruths in future.”