Living on Plague Island

The ways in which the UK government, the health services and general public seem to be in complete denial about the continuing dangers posed by Covid-19 and its impacts on health, the economy and society is a key theme discussed across this website. This blog discusses a recent paper from the US which coins the phrase – ‘calm-mongering’. This will resonate strongly with the experiences of people like myself who endeavour to understand the evidence on what is happening, and take rational decisions in order to keep ourselves safe despite all of the rubbish that is thrown at us by the media, officials and ‘friends’ and family.

The following quotes encapsulate common claims made over the past 4 years and which continue to be spouted by some of those in positions of authority at the UKHSA and similar, including at the on-going Covid Inquiry hearings.

‘it only impacts on the very old and very sick’

‘get a life /start living – it’s no longer dangerous – it’s mild – just a sniffle – a cold, the flu’

‘if you are vaccinated you are OK – even if you catch it, it is not dangerous’

‘It’s a stable winter virus’

‘children are OK, it won’t do them any harm’

‘ masks don’t work’, ‘you can’t go on wearing masks forever’, ‘a surgical mask has always been perfectly adequate for most procedures’

‘it’s important for us to all catch it – then we will have herd immunity – it’s just that we are no there yet’;

‘the virus is evolving to become ever milder’

‘if you don’t have symptoms you can’t spread Covid’

‘ it is not airborne – the key is to wipe surfaces and wash your hands’

‘ long covid is all in the head – invented by malingerers for malingerers’

‘ poor behaviour by children, withdrawal from the labour market by older workers is all down to lockdown’, ‘of course it’s nothing to do with the damage Covid does to every organ in the body, including the brain.’

All of the examples above are attempts at ‘calm-mongering’. The claims are of course false but continue to be peddled by parts of government, authorities, health services and by the general public. This is explained in Chakravarty and Gregory’s recent piece which looks at how calm-mongering has been deployed repeatedly to cloud the public’s judgment about the risks of COVID, and how it continues to interfere with the development of an effective public health response.

Common techniques alluded to by Chakravarty and Gregory include:

• We don’t know – we need to wait for the definitive evidence – rather than say adopt a precautionary principle – strongly in evidence at the Covid Inquiry hearings;
• It’s complicated– when a scientific claim is made that is uncomfortable and cannot be disproven, and on balance is almost certainly true, Covid minimisers often respond with the counter claim that it’s more complicated than that, ‘the human body is complex’. This has until recently been strongly in evidence on BBC news coverage of Covid-19.
• Straw man, – knee jerk arguments that aim to deflect attention away from evidence based statements eg. ‘are you saying we should lock down for ever’ as opposed to this leading to rational discussion about what could easily be done. This technique is very common in day to day conversations with so called ‘friends’ for example;
• Wishful thinking – it’s what the calm-mongerers want – those in authority don’t want to believe that Covid-19 is like an aerosol and hangs in the air because it means it would need to be addressed collectively rather than placing responsibility on individuals; neither do individuals want to believe in Long Covid because it has implications for them, and most people want to forget the pandemic.
• False claims – if all else fails just make it up. It is extraordinary how much of this is in evidence across the media, social media and in the minds of many people. Take for example, the way in which anti-vaxers, and anti lockdown fanatics have gained profile.
• Switch blade science– this is a more sophisticated variant of the above where calm mongers bring out misleading papers and articles which receive a disproportionate amount of attention in the media, they may be subsequently withdrawn by journal editors, rebuked by honest scientists and others, but the damage has been done. It is easy to think of a number of examples of this around the debate about the effectiveness of masks, for example.

Why does Calm-mongering persist still in the UK?

Calm-mongering is in evidence across much of the discussion of Covid-19 in the UK today. It is perpetuated for a number of reasons.

Those responsible for budgets want to avoid the inevitable conclusion that they need to spend some money on collective measures eg air filtration systems in hospitals, schools and public buildings.

Those who were responsible to decisions early on in the pandemic wish to continue to cover up their mistakes by digging themselves in even deeper – sometimes telling barefaced lies in the process or refusing to engage with the evidence.

Those currently in power who may in the heart of hearts know what is going on, fear the backlash if they so much as mention the C word and the damage being done to the economy, the NHS and people’s health. So they join the calm-mongering – it’s easier, it’s better for their career after all.

As will be evident from anyone who has watched the recent Covid Inquiry hearings, many of the healthcare and social care staff who worked during the height of the pandemic are deeply traumatised and this is not helped by the continuing huge pressures they face. They want to forget about Covid-19, FFP3 masks and anything associated with it. They therefore join the calm-mongering.

And the general public want to forget about lockdowns, mass deaths, restrictions on movement, mask wearing and everything associated with the pandemic and they want to pretend it’s gone – calm mongering messages are like music to their ears – they reinforce their version of reality. This is essentially why they turn on those who continue to be cautious or who has long covid- see my discussion of mask abuse and discrimination and What is wrong with people.

Implications

Calm-mongering is very dangerous indeed. It essentially means that the rational responses you might hope to see in response to evidence on what is a rapidly mutating virus have effectively been closed down by a collective calming based on misinformation at different levels. In the words of Chakravarty and Gregory:

‘Lulling the public into a false sense of security about an ongoing pandemic is an irresponsible approach to public health. In an emergent crisis, the public deserves to know the truth about potential risks. Calm-mongering is a dangerous tactic, and the virus is its only beneficiary.‘

It may not be very palatable but this is what we are up against in trying to live our lives safely. We need to press on with raising the profile, including at the Covid Inquiry and through lobbying, dissemination of facts and potential solutions, calling out and countering rubbish claims, as well as consciousness raising in our day to day negotiations. But it is nevertheless useful to articulate the underlying drivers of and nature of calm-mongering in order to try to consciously counter it.