Use of fear to control behaviour in Covid crisis was ‘totalitarian’, admit scientists

The Telegraph:

Members of Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour express regret about ‘unethical’ methods

Scientists on a committee that encouraged the use of fear to control people’s behaviour during the Covid pandemic have admitted its work was “unethical” and “totalitarian”.

Members of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) expressed regret about the tactics in a new book about the role of psychology in the Government’s Covid-19 response.

SPI-B warned in March last year that ministers needed to increase “the perceived level of personal threat” from Covid-19 because “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened”.

Gavin Morgan, a psychologist on the team, said: “Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any modern government. By nature I am an optimistic person, but all this has given me a more pessimistic view of people.”

Mr Morgan spoke to author Laura Dodsworth, who has spent a year investigating the Government’s tactics for her book A State of Fear, published on Monday.

Ministers have faced repeated accusations that they ramped up the threat from the pandemic to justify lockdowns and coerce the public into abiding by them – a claim that will be examined by the forthcoming public inquiry into the pandemic response.

(Let’s hope they end up somewhere they can deeply think about their abuse of public trust for a long long time and not much else to do.)

H/T Miss Piggy

Related:

“Criminal charges have been filed against Martin Ackermann, the head of the Swiss National Covid-19 Science Task Force and “possibly other parties involved”, for deliberately and successfully frightening the population in accordance with Art. 258 of the Criminal Code.” “The criminal complaint was submitted by five associations and seven private individuals, as they wrote in a message on Friday. Including associations such as the “Friends of the Constitution” and the youth movement “Mass-Voll”.”
“The plaintiffs accuse Martin Ackermann of the following crimes, among others:

Repeated publication of implausible horror prognoses regarding the occupancy of the intensive care beds, with the aim of terrifying the public and implementing more stringent measures.” “Repeated and systematic manipulation of past ICU bed data, presumably with the aim of making the current situation appear more dramatic.” “False statements about hospitalizations and deaths.” “Constantly changing reasons for tightening or maintaining the measures, depending on which indicator fits best into the desired narrative.”

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “Use of fear to control behaviour in Covid crisis was ‘totalitarian’, admit scientists”

  1. AIDS.

    Governments said, “know the risks, the decision is yours.”
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X6Ol0209V5w&feature=emb_title

    “Wear a condom”
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iroty5zwOVw&feature=emb_title

    No houses stormed by HerTheyHmms to check condoms were worn.

    “HIV continues to have a disproportionate impact on certain populations, particularly racial and ethnic minorities and gay and bisexual men.”
    https://www.hiv.gov/hiv-basics/overview/data-and-trends/statistics

    The Protected Characterists Police cannot investigate.

  2. I know things are going to be chaotic in the world for a while but o hope we can one day come to the realities the hate isn’t real and it’s the greedy that continue to divide us but the day we realize it’s all bull and we have been tricked will be a day we can truly enjoy what we given , the chance to experience this earth . Hopefully I’ll be able to do that before I’m dead even if it’s five minutes . It’ll have made it all worth it . We have been separated from each other for a long time 🙁 it was well played and no one should feel bad for having trust the only ones who should feel bad are the ones who broke it

    • *Groan*

      The hate isn’t real? I infer from this that you haven’t encountered the kovid karen screaming behind her party armband and dead satanic eye of farcebok yet?
      Or the five foot steriodial manlet peeling it’s wifebeater off and chest-pounding like an enraged baboon when one questions the narrative.
      Where do the concentration-camp screws, and Buchenwalds come from?
      Do they spring, fully formed from the ground?
      No.
      They come from us. All the happy thoughts and sincere prayers in the universe will not change the simple fact that fully 90% of the populous of the day are vicious, rectum-chewing savages, only wanting the thinnest pretext to launch the pogroms and hodolomors.
      This is what the descent into savagery looks like.
      I know it’s all very scary; but worry not.
      It will get much worse.

      • I just meant it’s not our hate well at least I don’t hate anyone for what I’m told to hate them for , I definitely have deep resentment to those who exploit human lives for greed . I meant no I’ll will . I just want to put my energies on doing the right thing and showing the younger generations how to save their freedoms . I’m very concerned .