One vital lesson of the pandemic should be that our society is far too tolerant of pseudo-scientific medical quackery, specifically, and magical thinking, in general. Here's why this is especially bad in a public health emergency:

1) Quackery can deprive evidence-based research and treatment options of much-needed resources. Every misdirected dollar prolongs the crisis.

2) Quackery can prevent the adoption of meaningful preventative measures and supplant real treatment options, ensuring the greater spread and lethality of a disease.

Though the current pandemic shines a light on these dangers, they've always been there. Sure, much quackery just bilks the credulous of their money without risk of mortality, leaving many to tolerate the "harmless placebo" they provide...

But not everyone who is subjected to such "treatments" receives the real care they may desperately need, their care plan decided for them by a partner or community. This is especially true of the vulnerable: children and the elderly.

An Olympic swimmer who practices "cupping", thinking it will improve their performance, will probably live. A child with a burst appendix receiving the same treatment might not receive real treatment in time.

The same goes for mental healthcare. It can be mildly amusing to realize that some people genuinely believe demons exist and impact our world; much less so when it turns out this fantasy is their foundation for the treatment of mental illness (or plain old dissident thought).

It's disturbing how pervasive quackery is in our society, having successfully sidestepped regulation designed to protect the public and become a variety of multi-billion dollar industries hawked on daytime TV or, lately, from the Oval Office.