The Pandemic-Era State of Fear Problem, Updated

The journalist Laura Dodsworth wrote a magnificent book, remarkably early in the pandemic, arguing on good evidence that the British government was weaponizing fear in calculated and conscious ways to steer human behavior like a bus. More than three years later, her reporting has been vindicated over and over again.

So: Same thing, different place. Please take some of your time over the next few days to at least skim a new report from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, “An Assessment of the Department of Health and Human Services’ COVID-19 Public Health Campaign.” You can open the PDF file here. It won’t shock anyone here to learn that the federal government’s public health agencies told deliberate lies, repeatedly, but go see the details for yourself.

You can also start with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya’s informed and critical summary, in a long thread on I-still-call-it-Twitter here or on Threadreader here. Bottom line up front: “The House report on HHS covid propaganda is devastating. The Biden admin spent almost a billion dollars to push falsehoods about covid vaccines, boosters, and masks on the American people. If a pharma company had run the campaign, it would have been fined out of existence.” Sample observation:

The common scolding refrain during the pandemic was that the vicious anti-vaxxer trash who didn’t Believe in Science™ were refusing to listen to the experts. What we know now — as if we didn’t know it then, but stay with me here — is that the people who played “experts” on television were never listening to the actual experts.

Related, I recently recorded an hour-long discussion with Rich Helppie at The Common Bridge. We talked, among many other things, about the pandemic and the unbelievers who upset poor Saint Dr. Fauci. I have saved a screenshot of my facial expression from this portion of the discussion so that it can one day be displayed in a museum:

A good discussion, if you’re interested.