A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic

Back at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, in late March 2020, in a report for the government discussing options for increasing adherence to restrictions these chilling words appear:"The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging."This book sets out to ask whether it was ethical or wise to deliberately frighten the population into compliance & whether that response was proportional to the actual threat and to discern the unintended consequences of that approach. When you look back on it, did any of us really think we needed government whether we could sit next to anyone on a park bench or visit our loved ones in their place of residence? Did any of us anticipate that healthy people would not be permitted to spend time with dying family members in order to "protect" them?Laura Dodsworth has done sterling work in analysing the extensive fear-mongering and manipulation of the past 18 months. I see the effects of that with many of the people I know. People who are astonished to learn that the excess deaths are not the worst since the war but are less than several years in this century, people who believe that the death rate from Covid is nearly 10%! I've watched with dismay as elderly people in my village, living alone, have cut themselves off from society because they see perfectly healthy people as vectors of infection & disease. I've seen their astonishment when I explain that we have had three deaths with Covid since August in the entire district (covering half a county!). They don't believe it even when I show them the information on the government's own website.I thought I had heard it all (one of my neighbours is so terrified that she still disinfects her shopping and has a shower after visiting the supermarket) but it was heart-breaking to read in the book about a chap with terminal cancer who drove to hospital rather than walk "because I didn't think I should breathe in air that other people were breathing out." On his return to his home he stripped off in his conservatory because he didn't want to contaminate the house & threw his shoes away before scrubbing himself in a hot shower. He may be an extreme case, but the government should hang its head in shame that in his last months was reduced to a sense of abject terror.Dodsworth is scathing about the complicity of the media in all this - no challenge to the ridiculous videos of people collapsing in the street in China, no analysis of statistics or attempt to put the data in context. Likewise no attempt to hold Neil Ferguson to account or question his predictions of half a million deaths given his track record of being seriously wrong about previous disease outbreaks. It has to be said, some medics haven't covered themselves with glory - I was horrified to read that the BBC's breakfast doctor, Sarah Jarvis, had actually said on air "Breathing is an offensive weapon if you are infected with Covid."Dodsworth did speak to members of SPI-B, although it is telling that two felt they could only be fully open about their views if they were anonymous. They were concerned about creeping authoritarianism and that the lack of nuance might cause people to disbelieve government messaging in future times of crisis. Another said the use of fear had been "dystopian" and "ethically questionable". Another was "stunned by the weaponisation of behavioural psychology". Meanwhile the head of the Self-Harm Research Group at Nottingham University decried the 'Don't Kill Granny' message and its impact on vulnerable children. Some researchers are allegedly too frightened to speak out, to question the narrative, for fear of loss of job or even career. Other eminent scientists have either been vilified or just removed from the discussion.She highlights that the choice of metrics and information promoted to the public maintains the sense of fear - for example constantly talking about cases & hospital admissions without mentioning most of those in hospital go home alive, or what the term 'Covid death' really means, or how much Covid was contracted not in the community but in hospitals & nursing homes (such information is not easy to get even though government websites are replete with detailed statistics). Overall, the impression is that figures are being chosen to support the government's line, rather than the approach being determined by the statistics. The selective use of data was even commented on by the UK Statistics Authority. Meanwhile social media is removing articles/videos etc as misleading or as spreading disinformation (having a Nobel prize or being a Professor at one of our most prestigious universities & an acknowledged expert in the field will not help you). Yet there is clear bias as the likes of Ferguson, who has been serially wrong by large margins (!), is still reported. This is combined with a failure to explain just why the information is misleading, to allow people to read for themselves. This has meant that some heavyweight scientists have been largely eliminated from public debate, often categorised as conspiracy theorists.The consequences of all this have been horrendous. Evidence shows people dying at home, presumably too frightened to go to hospital, soaring cancer waiting lists with the inevitable consequences, the disruption to children's education. And here we are again with under 50 cases of the new Omicron variant and we're back in masks and some are suggesting a second Christmas be curtailed. In other countries, vaccines are being mandated and some here are calling for this. The civil liberties implications are serious. And this wrought by a campaign of fear that has persuaded many people to willingly accept the erosion of their liberties in order to "protect" them and ensure their "safety". And, as Dodsworth indicates, no-one has got a plan for reversing the impact of the fear tactics. Dodsworth also highlighted the absence of Parliamentary scrutiny -since she wrote the book our MPs could not be bothered to vote on the extension of the Coronavirus Act until March. So much for democracy, so much for civil liberties.

Had dipped my toe into this topic before. Thats by persuing a freebie second hand passed on Irish book called "Web Of Lies" by Aoife Gallagher, as considered for a parents christmas gift.However it seemed more aptly pertinant as a title, to it's OWN content in the end, (with the hidoeus villinous creatures as charachtured all adrift in *dangerous* non government endorsed wrong think !:)Realised I'd have to choose more carefully for an intellegent, nuanced methodically researched deep dives to gift an educated reader following events closely in tumultous times, I found this one.Thankfully a great choice, VERY well receieved by my father and already being passed about the house, leading to some quality discussions over the holiday.Bottom line, there's a lot of dross out there, including ones chillingly perpetuating the hatred of a large questioning cohort and peddling the same ol same ol as corporate media.Thankfully there's antidotes making it to press and this has certaintly drawn me into the topic and opened my own eyes.An excellent christmas gift in the end for the whole family!

This book came out yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to finish it so I could put up a review. Laura Dodsworth’s book ‘A State of Fear’ pulls no punches. She convincingly argues that behavioural psychology has been weaponised and is being used against all of us. The government has knowingly allowed its behavioural psychologist advisors to manipulate the ordinary citizen into believing that the covid virus is much worse than it actually is.As a senior psychotherapist myself, I know that much of what she describes is actually taking place; it is both unethical and immoral. Fear has been deliberately injected into people to produce a mass panic and hysteria. Groups of scientists such as those in the SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour) have knowingly tricked the public because they believe in the ‘greater good’. Isaiah Berlin warned us of the danger from those whose ideology blinds them to the natural rights of human beings. These advisors are so certain of their righteous beliefs, that they are prepared to use their knowledge and skills to dupe people who put their trust in authority.The mind control described is very real and only works because we have allowed ourselves to become increasingly gullible and passive as people. As narcissism has itself become an epidemic, we have become less sceptical, more reliant on social media and have developed more of a hive mind. This vulnerability is being exploited by the media and the authorities and we are being led, Pied Piper style into a very dystopian future.Laura Dodsworth has delved deep into the corridors of power, getting interviews from those who are involved in this political ponerology. It is clear that many people in whom we place our trust lack a conscience. It is unconscionable that we have been herded and coerced into a state of fear, our consent being given under duress. This is referred to as a ‘Nudge state’, where propaganda is nudging us to behave in ways that the authorities wish us to. We are being trained to be obedient and become more like the citizens of Totalitarian regimes. This is slavery 101, and no one is being honest about the psychological and social manipulations we are being subjected to.I highly recommend this book by a real journalist who challenges the establishment orthodoxy. It may disturb many readers who sincerely believe what they’ve been told. It is often said that it is easier to believe a lie than to realise that we’ve been lied to. In the absence of debate, being able to meet with friends and colleagues, and an honest exchange of beliefs and opinions, cancel culture is demonising anyone who believes anything contrary to the groupthink. Be prepared to be shocked by many of the revelations contained in this book and maybe it will wake you up from the stupor.

Now the tide of Covid hysteria has receded from our shores, we can see things more clearly, such as the longer term data showing that over 2020-2022, Sweden had the lowest excess mortality. This book was written more or less in "real time" coming out in Spring 2021, when we were still gripped by a world of lateral flow tests, vaccine booster boosting and performative masking. The clarity of understanding is all the more impressive for having cut through this whilst it was still going on, but a new edition, with some updates from the additional perspective of time and the data now available, would be most welcome.