A State of Fear: How the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic - Laura Dodsworth (the first e reader .txt) 📗

the widest sense, published by the NHS in December 2020. Since removed from the internet.

2.news.sky.com/story/there-will-be-a-role-for-vaccinecertificates-says-pm-but-it-might-not-be-until-august-12256251

3.www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56517486

4.www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/25/what-is-the-point-ofvaccine-passports/

5.www.theguardian.com/society/2019/sep/29/government-seriously-considering-compulsory-vaccinations-matt-hancock

6.www.independent.co.uk/news/business/covid-vaccine-carehome-workers-unions-b1821303.html

7.hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/05/my-first-epistle-tothe-corbynites-dont-get-me-wrong-about-the-polls.html

8.www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/publication/1970-01/sri-ipsosmori-acceptable-behaviour-january-2012.pdf

9.ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/2019-2022_roadmap_en.pdf

10.https://twitter.com/BigBrotherWatch/status/1369272255897812992

CHAPTER 19: MAKING SURE IT NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN

1.www.spiked-online.com/2007/04/04/the-only-thing-we-have-tofear-is-the-culture-of-fear-itself/

2.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/risa.13117

3.youtu.be/_Tc4bl1yZLw

4.www.researchgate.net/publication/340378068_Fear_of_the_coronavirus_COVID-19_Predictors_in_an_online_study_conducted_in_March_2020

5.www.parallelparliament.co.uk/mp/steve-baker/dept/DHSC

6.www.apa.org/news/apa/2020/10/fear-motivator-elections

7.www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3189350

8.link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11077-018-9325-5

9.www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/MINDSPACE.pdf

10.thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-6/interviewdavid-halpern-insight-nudge

11.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201012/ldselect/ldsctech/179/179.pdf

12.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/2d0e5df7-cb15-434c-89a5-579c051aa8ec

CHAPTER 20: THE END, OR IS IT A PREQUEL?

1.www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/25/covid-checks-atpubs-could-nudge-young-people-to-get-vaccine

2.news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vaccinated-people-should-beable-to-meet-up-and-go-on-holidays-says-scientist-12257033

3.www.thesun.co.uk/news/14484775/roadmap-brits-lockdownrules-friends-family-hugging/

4.www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-03-24/when-willcovid-end-we-must-start-planning-for-a-permanent-pandemic

5.www.thetimes.co.uk/article/people-don-t-agree-with-lockdownand-try-to-undermine-the-scientists-gnms7mp98

6.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23390971/

APPENDIX 1: DATA

1.www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html

2.www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/report-34-ifr/

3.www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/99/1/20-265892/en/

APPENDIX 2: LOCKDOWNS DON’T WORK

1.www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ec-lockdowntracker-24-hscp5q3zzxht

2.apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329438/9789241516839-eng.pdf

3.www.thetimes.co.uk/article/people-don-t-agree-withlockdownand-try-toundermine-the-scientists-gnms7mp98

4.www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/05/16/neil-fergusonsimperial-model-could-devastating-software-mistake/

5.www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-as-thecoronavirus-pandemic-takes-hold-we-are-making-decisionswithout-reliable-data/

6.news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-40-of-recent-covid-19-deathsin-englandand-wales-occurred-in-care-homesons-11986899

7.lockdownsceptics.org/2021/03/10/up-to-two-thirds-of-seriouscovid-infections-are-caught-in-hospital-study/

8.www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/14/exclusive-borisjohnson-accepts-made-mistake-delaying-first/

9.www.civitas.org.uk/content/files/The-cost-of-the-cure-30-November.pdf

10.www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chris-whitty-blames-poorplanningfor-lockdown-in-bad-tempered-health-committeed5kb3fmw2

11.www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-and-the-lockdown-effect-alook-at-the-evidence

12.www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-do-not-control-thecoronavirusthe-evidence/

13.www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockdownsand-covid-19

14.www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2405-7;science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6500/eabb9789;www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m2743

15.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13484

16.www.cebm.net/covid-19/excess-mortality-acrosscountriesin-2020/

17.https://omni.se/folkhalsomyndighetens-chef-i-ku-vi-har-fattratt/a/WOK81g

18.www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-and-the-lockdown-effect-alook-at-the-evidence

19.www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/18/the-myth-of-our-latelockdown/

20.https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3764553

INDEX

9/11 45, 46–7, 55, 223, 255

50c army 20, 74

77th Brigade 63, 73–4, 139

1984 (Orwell) 188

abusive relationships 141–4

Academy of Ideas 60–1, 243

‘accursed’ people 51, 54

Acheson, Donald 98

Adams, John 39

advertising 29, 105, 117–20, 137, 256

Advertising Standards Authority 117–18, 119, 239

advisory groups, unelected 70, 256 see also specific groups

Agamben, Giorgio 51

age of death 5, 150

age-adjusted mortality 276

Agence-France Presse 24

agoraphobia 16, 177

Ahmed, Samir 130, 131, 135

AIDS 98–9, 100, 187

aliens 206

‘All in, All together’ campaign 29

‘all in this together’ 86, 92, 111

altruism 105, 106

American Institute for Economic Research 275

amulets 180

Analysis of the health, economic and social effects of COVID-19 and the approach to tiering 219

Animal Farm (Orwell) 122, 123

anonymous sources 60, 63–4, 67, 88

anti-lockdown protests 50–1, 54, 82, 173, 203

anti-vaccine information 72–3, 87, 134, 138, 184

Anti-Virus (Covidfaq) website 181

‘apocalypse’ 13, 18, 84, 200, 208, 214

apotheosis 124

app (NHS) 137, 224

Árbenz Guzmán, Juan Jacobo 42–3

archetypes 13, 179

Ardern, Jacinta 65, 78

army 73–4

assemble, right to 82

Associated Press 24

Associated Press Factcheck 154

Astra Zeneca vaccine 132–4

asymptomatic ‘cases’ 160

asymptomatic transmission 51, 119

Atwood, Margaret 110

Auken, Ida 211

authentic messaging 10

authenticity checking 18, 24

authoritarianism

collectivist values 265

creeping 90

fear induces desire for 267

fear of 9, 201–2, 234, 235

and lockdown 218–19, 266

personal threat perception 104

‘seeding’ 19

authority

moral authority 47, 241–2

perceived 100

when under threat our brains listen to 13

autocracy 248

availability bias/heuristic 21–2

‘back to normal’ 93, 247, 264

Bad News Has Wings: Dread Risk Mediates Social Amplification in Risk Communication 252

Baker, Norman 241

Baker, Steve 69–70, 256, 265

balanced coverage 22, 25–6, 99

Bank Holiday Monday 172 ‘bare life’ 51

Basu, Neil 138

Baudrillard, Jean 146

BBC

cautionary tales 108

Covid coverage 22–3, 26, 37, 105, 153

government-media-public relationship 30, 156

headlines 32, 33

research tactics 203–4

as state broadcaster 30

Behaviour Change 61–2, 259

Behavioural Government 40, 183

Behavioural Insight Teams (BIT) 20, 59, 71, 100, 109, 183, 260

behavioural science/behavioural psychology see also SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour)

and democracy 243

ethics of 61–2, 185, 238, 260

future of 265

government advisors 58–9

infantilisation by 243

inquiry into 258–62

and journalism 109

and masks 111, 205, 237

neuroticism 90–1

in the NHS 246–7

nudge theory 58–75

and politics 88, 253

propaganda 43, 56

role in healing from epidemic 87

SPI-B (Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour) 78–95

tools of the trade 98–120, 242

vaccines and the language of coercive control 245

weaponisation of 63, 98–120

Bernays, Edward 42, 43, 58, 104, 244, 265

Biderman, Albert 141, 142, 245

Big Brother state 45

Big Brother Watch 46, 72, 138, 221, 223–4, 227

Big Tech 191, 224, 256

biopolitics 51

biosecurity state 48, 49, 53, 180, 248

bio-terrorism 48, 52

Black Lives Matter 82, 173

Black Mirror 11

Blair, Tony 47, 55

Blitz spirit 12

block policing 88

Bloomberg 264

BMA (British Medical Association) 153–4

BMJ (British Medical Journal) 136, 212

bodily sovereignty 53

‘body blow’ 23

body counts 41

body language 8, 10–12

body storage facilities 163

boiling frogs 110–11

border control 39, 40, 51–2, 272

bots 138, 139, 252, 256

Bournemouth beach 173

brainwashing 43, 141, 185, 196–215, 242

Breakthrough Media 126, 138

Brexit 41, 253

Brimelow, Kirsty 220–2, 226

British Medical Islamic Association 134

British Psychological Society (BPS) 113, 185, 217, 238

‘build back better’ 78, 211, 213

Bunker-Smith, Harrie 141, 185

Cabinet Office 29, 63, 71–4, 130, 131, 135, 163, 260

Cabinet Office for Civil Emergencies Unit 254

Cain, Lee 68

Cambridge Analytica 104

Cameron, David 59, 85

Canada 65

cancer deaths 140, 232

Captain Tom 124

carbon emissions 78–9

care homes 53, 155, 165–7, 200, 248–9, 273

Carlo, Silkie 46, 47, 72, 138, 223–4, 226, 227

Carlson, Johan 276

case isolation 272

case studies 108–9

cases

counting/defining 147, 154–5, 159, 160, 272

as key metric 115, 149

lockdowns based on 159

cashless society 210

Caspian, James 214–15

Cassell, Jackie 99, 100, 246, 248

cautionary tales 108–9

celebrities 134, 136, 137

censorship 55–6, 72, 143, 180–1, 186–7, 190, 191, 256

Changes to Human Medicine Regulations to support the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines 4

Channel 4 26, 135

Channel 5 135

Chart of Coercion 141, 142, 245

chevrons 105, 108, 264

children see also schools

behavioural science 108

burdened with responsibility/blame 87, 107

effects of lockdown 184–5

Kawasaki-like disease reports 64

and masks 91

mental health 91, 167, 170–1, 231, 239–40

poverty 232

as scapegoats 193

used to create shock effects 66

China

Belt and Road Initiative 20

collectivism 89

Cultural Revolution 43–4

Great Firewall 20

lockdown 272–3

quarantine 52

response to virus 9

social credit 89, 206

social media propaganda 19–21

Trump’s ‘Chinese virus’ 40

videos 18–19, 252–3

choice 53–4, 62

Chomsky, Noam 27

Christmas 116–17, 174–5

churches 173–4, 180, 234

citizen policing 114

civil liberties 218–28

Civitas 150, 274

Clap for Carers 68, 94–5, 122–5, 199

clickbait 18, 29, 253, 256

climate change 65, 78–9

clinical diagnosis versus PCR alone 53

clinically vulnerable people 14

COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) 74, 81

‘cocooning’ the vulnerable 68

co-creation 86, 88, 91

coercion 53, 56, 109–10, 132, 141–4, 198, 245–50

Coetzee, J.M. 179, 180

cognitive bias 102

cognitive dissonance 200

Cohen, Nick 54

cohesion 67, 68, 86, 177

Cold War 15, 39, 42, 47, 55, 214

collective conscience 86

collectivism 81, 86, 92, 95, 105, 111, 144, 213, 215

Collins, Damian 138

Communism 20, 42, 43–4, 88, 197, 266

Community Champions 87–8, 129, 136

Community Party of Britain 88

community support 257

compliance

incentives 101, 107, 202, 243

stories of 109

through fear 54, 86–7, 91, 94, 108–9, 113, 128, 148, 192, 259

through penalties for non-compliance 101

through shame 114

concentration camps 51, 52

conflicts of interest 55, 212

conformity 279

confusion, creation of 64, 116, 117

conscience, relaxation of 199–200

consensus 83

consent 43, 61, 70, 81 see also informed consent

conspiracy theories 19, 55, 184, 185, 202–15

contact tracing 224, 272

Contagion 24

contagion of fear 214–15

Continuous Mortality Investigation 157

contracts, government-awarded 212–13, 241

controlled spontaneity 122–39

convergent agendas 212, 242

Cook, Sue 22, 23, 25

Coronavirus Act (2020) 164, 205, 219, 221

coroners 163–4, 166

corpses, images of 24

cortisol 147, 237

cost-benefit analysis 70, 147–8, 150–1, 183, 219, 239, 260, 272

“costly signalling” 137

Counter Disinformation Cell 63, 72

counter-terrorism 46, 47, 71, 126

covert strategies 56, 62, 129–30, 131, 137, 224, 243 see also psyops

Covid certification schemes 206 see also vaccine certification

Covid deniers 184, 271

Covid Social Study 86

COVID-19 and the 24/7 News Cycle: Does COVID-19 News Exposure Affect Mental Health? 240

Covidiots 54, 101, 105–8, 176, 200, 204, 271

Craig, Clare 182

criminalisation 221

crises, government exploitation of 45, 55, 71, 235–44

critical thinking 83, 148, 199, 215, 242, 280

cults 196–215

Cummings, Dominic 23, 68, 253

curfews 68–9

Curie, Marie 235

Curtis, Adam 42, 47

Cygnus 162, 164

Czech Republic 276

Daily Express 32, 33

Daily Mail 33, 34, 35, 36, 111, 115, 241 see also Mail Online

Daily Mirror 32, 35, 36, 108

Daily Star 35

Danmask study 188–9

data analytics 46, 252, 253

data dashboards 150, 155, 236

data science 253

de Moliere, Laura 260

death

certification of 162–9

counting deaths 146–7, 162–9

daily death tolls 146–7

daily media coverage of 21–2, 29, 146–7

date