Soilwork Guitarist Discusses How His Work as a Doctor Informs His View of Covid-19 Conspiracy Theorists
Soilwork guitarist David Andersson (also of The Night Flight Orchestra) was our recent guest on The MetalSucks Podcast. Despite Soilwork’s success for over two decades (Andersson joined in 2012), David has kept his regular job as a doctor and still practices to this day. That job has brought him into direct contact with Covid-19 more than the average person, including the requisite conspiracy theorists that dot the world.
From his training and experience as a doctor, Andersson had some interesting thoughts to share with us on the current Covid-19 pandemic, conspiracy theorists like QAnon, the evolving nature of the virus and how all of that ties into Soilwork’s new EP, A Whisp of the Atlantic.
On how his day job as a doctor informs the way he views Covid-19 conspiracy theorists:
“It’s easier for a lot of people to believe conspiracy theories than believing in science. It’s a lot easier for people to believe in religion than believing in evolving as a human race and perhaps have a bit more of a skeptical way of looking at things, being critical about where you find your sources of information and building your own world view.
“Me being an MD, I see it myself. I thought about what the basis of science is and how being a scientist myself, the truth is always changing. It’s always dynamic. What I was taught when I went to medical school is not the truth anymore. I started medical school in ’98 and I’ve been a doctor for 16 years and so much has changed in that short period of time. I know that the truth is always dynamic.
“And I feel it’s a bit sad that huge parts of the society are dumbing down something good. It’s wrong to believe in science, it’s wrong to doubt progress. Instead it’s like regression is something that we should praise and be proud of.
“And that’s where ‘A Wisp of the Atlantic’ comes in; it’s more like entering a new world where you feel alienated and you can’t play by the old rules anymore. You have to find your own truth and deal with the fact that you can’t just rely on the stuff you’ve been indoctrinated with all your life, to make intelligent choices and really seek the truth. It’s not about providing answers, it’s more about asking questions.
“People seem to accept the easy. It’s always easier to think everything is a big conspiracy theory. The whole QAnon conspiracy where the world is ruled by pedophile Jews or whatever [laughs]. It’s like, where do you come up with that stuff?
“So [‘A Whisp of the Atlantic’] is not a political song in any way. It’s just how a person can try to deal with a tiny ray of hope that you sometimes get when you have a bit of an epiphany, when you realize what you really want or need and how you can change yourself as a person to become more than just what you always were.”
On the evolution and progression of the virus, and when he sees the world getting fully back to normal:
“As for the whole Covid-19 debate, I keep a low profile on social media ’cause I’m very humble. Even though I’m a doctor myself, I’m a gastroenterologist so it’s not really my field of expertise, but I guess I know more than the average person about stuff like viral infections. And when the foremost experts in the world still don’t know how to deal with it, why would someone who’s, like, a truck driver think that he or she knows or has the solution to this problem? I think we should all just try to deal with it the best we can.
“You can’t really blame it on some communist conspiracy or whatever, it’s just biology. An animal virus mutating so it can transfer to humans and it’s a new entity. In Sweden. with the second wave, it’s mutating so it’s become less violent, people don’t get as sick anymore, and that’s the case with all viruses. If they don’t mutate and become less violent, they will just kill off the host and then the virus will go away as well. That’s not how evolution works. It will probably take a couple years before evolution slows the virus. Best case scenario is that we get a vaccine that works and we get to vaccinate the majority of people in the world. But it will take a few years before we can expect things to get back to normal.
“I really don’t see the point in denying the fact that it’s a big problem and we’ll just have to deal with it the best we can. Denial is never a way forward.”
You can listen to the full episode including our chat with David via the embed below or right here, along with the title track from Soilwork’s new EP.
