‘Germany ministry hired scientists to induce corona fear’

[Lissy23]

Just came across this article on Twitter, very interesting and wondering if the same thing happened here in the UK:

netherlandsnewslive.com/german-ministry-hired-scientists-to-induce-corona-fear/84131/

Kerber sent an email to several scientists, universities and research institutes asking, among other things, for a worst-case scenario to get a “mental and systematic” grip on the situation. This would help to plan “measures of a preventive and repressive nature”.

The scientists provided plenty of suggestions, including proposals to put “fear and obedience in the population” on the agenda, writes Die Welt. For this purpose, campaigns could be used with images of people dying of breathlessness because there are no IC beds available.

We had the same here.
From gov.uk document dates March 22nd 2020 (Options for increasing adherence to social distancing measures)

A substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it
could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group ...The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging

We have had slogans like "don't kill granny" and the "look in his eyes" campaign recently. Not to mention the radio ad which was pulled after one day for stating that joggers were "highly likely" to have C-19 and implying that 1 in 3 people had it. I'm not surprised other countries have done the same.

Of course we’ve had the same here. Just google Susan Michie, who sits on both Sage and Indy Sage (which I would have thought would constitute a conflict of interest, but hey). She’s a behavioural psychologist whose research includes ‘developing methodologies for designing and evaluating theory-based interventions to change behaviour, and advancing scientific knowledge about, and applications of, behaviour change interventions’ (Wikipedia).

In other words, manipulating the public and instilling fear. This and the vaccine rollout are pretty much the only things they’ve done efficiently throughout the pandemic.

It’s not even a secret that this is what’s been going on.

@TheKeatingFive

It’s not even a secret that this is what’s been going on.

This. They quite literally, upfront, told us they would psychologically manipulate us into doing as they wanted. They straight up told us the game plan.

And we were like "oh I see, crack on then".

Love this country. 😂

Why do more people not know about this?!

I wouldn't put it in those terms. I think it has been a completely weird situation and there has been a Public Health issue about how to get over the importance of infection control to people. I don't think that trying to explain this to people is a bad thing, it has probably saved a lot of lives.

@herecomesthsun

I wouldn't put it in those terms. I think it has been a completely weird situation and there has been a Public Health issue about how to get over the importance of infection control to people. I don't think that trying to explain this to people is a bad thing, it has probably saved a lot of lives.

One of the "look them in the eyes" campaigns asks if you can't really work from home..... when it that is not up to employees at all.

Quite here.

There’s a big difference between ramping up something that’s not a risk in order to get people to do what we want for no reason and figuring out the best way to get people to do something that they won’t do because they can’t see the risk when it does matter. Strategies that might be wrong in one situation might be the only or best option in another.

@TempsPerdu

Of course we’ve had the same here. Just google Susan Michie, who sits on both Sage and Indy Sage (which I would have thought would constitute a conflict of interest, but hey). She’s a behavioural psychologist whose research includes ‘developing methodologies for designing and evaluating theory-based interventions to change behaviour, and advancing scientific knowledge about, and applications of, behaviour change interventions’ (Wikipedia).

In other words, manipulating the public and instilling fear. This and the vaccine rollout are pretty much the only things they’ve done efficiently throughout the pandemic.

How on earth does "developing methodologies for designing and evaluating theory-based interventions to change behaviour, and advancing scientific knowledge about, and applications of, behaviour change interventions" = "manipulating the public and instilling fear"

Behaviour change interventions are used in all aspects of public health, such as increase attendance for cervical smears, reducing binge drinking, quitting smoking etc etc.

Actually, given all the discussions on these threads over the last year, I think the most interesting thing about that article is that it’s the economic institute not the scientists that were pushing for using the higher death rate. It’s not a surprise, but you don’t often see it in print.

But that's always happened- think of those public information films. That was the government scaring us into not doing something (such as playing on the train track). It's not a secret.

I am completely unmoved by the propaganda as a result. I can smell the shite a mile off.

I have complied with the rules because I can see the NHS could have been overwhelmed and because I didn’t want to infect the vulnerable. Now e are vaccinating I’m afraid those sentiments are wearing thin and I will need a lot of scaring to remain convinced

The scare bots are all over MN too.

They better up their game because those new look me in the eye ads is like watching paint dry.

Surely people realised this was happening,?
The fear ads on tv are at saturation levels now
It doesn't work on us

I'm just waiting to see which person gets sent to prison for 10 years as announced by Matt Hancock today.
Think they might be pushing their luck even with the gullible there.

Never watch the news or the ads
It’s the only way to stay sane

Of course we have, since the start.

The BBC esp has been transparent in what I would call propoganda.

I’m not sure whether I find it odd that people have never realised that we have constantly lived alongside propaganda or I’m pleased people have more of an awareness of it...

All marketing and PR is basically propaganda. That doesn’t automatically make it evil or the information it’s conveying wrong but it does mean you should try and be aware of who is telling you what and for what purpose.

Good post OP. The public have been manipulated through a cynical Project Fear.

In the U.K. I find the ‘look him in the eyes’ campaign particularly low. An alternative has been suggested - ‘look him in the eyes...and tell him why his cancer is now untreatable/ his business failed/ his father committed suicide’, to draw attention to the avoidable tragedies being inflicted.

We need to start treating all lives with equal consideration, and remembering that Covid is not the only threat on earth.

@herecomesthsun

I wouldn't put it in those terms. I think it has been a completely weird situation and there has been a Public Health issue about how to get over the importance of infection control to people. I don't think that trying to explain this to people is a bad thing, it has probably saved a lot of lives.

This

It’s not new news it’s easy to see we need this as enforcement is difficult

@TheMerrickBoy I think the point is not that the government explained dangers to people, rather that they exaggerated and inflated figures to create fear and compliance.

Can't say I have seen the ads, I usually do something else when they are on or use the opportunity to fast forward if I am a bit behind. The covid fear thing was well known last year after the first lockdown as we had done better than expected

Regarding the ads, they have featured heavily in newspapers too. This is important - many advertisers have cut their usual spending drastically, and the government is now spending heavily on advertising, thus funding the newspapers.

No wonder the papers are so uncritical of the government and so unquestioning. They literally need government advertising spend in order to continue to operate. I fear the U.K. is in serious trouble, with an opposition which doesn’t oppose and media which can’t ask questions.