Government messaging

[OliveTree75]

Hello,
Been thinking recently how in years to come the Covid pandemic will most likely be studied in education all over the world.
What do you think the views on the government messaging will be in the future?
Looking back now, I find some of them hard to look at. We have been subjected to so much fear and whilst I agree we had to take action, I can’t help but wonder if some of these posters were a step too far.

@LyricalBlowToTheJaw

The end justifies the means is not good public health. You also have to think about what putting the frighteners on people does to them. You have to consider shame, stigma and long term impact on the population's trust and willingness to engage.

This is very true- I think many people have lost patience with the whole thing, especially seeing the juxtaposition between how those in government, who were putting out these scaremongering posters, actually behaved.... but yes, I'm sure Joe public was at risk of dying/ killing people going for a coffee 🙄 Such gaslighty bs.

“The whole point of these type of public health campaigns is to shock. So they did the job at the time. Not sure what the problem is”

Because by “solving” one problem, you may create another. You may not see it as a big problem, or it may be that we don’t know what the full knock-on effect is yet, but time will tell one way or the other.

“ The end justifies the means is not good public health. You also have to think about what putting the frighteners on people does to them. You have to consider shame, stigma and long term impact on the population's trust and willingness to engage.”

This is important

I work with teenagers and was contacted by an official info thing about helping to spread information among them. We were asked to share the "look them in the eyes" stuff and completely refused because of how awful it is. We found them far too scary, especially for our young audience.

@rainbowzebra05

I work with teenagers and was contacted by an official info thing about helping to spread information among them. We were asked to share the "look them in the eyes" stuff and completely refused because of how awful it is. We found them far too scary, especially for our young audience.

Good for you. Well done.

@LyricalBlowToTheJaw

The end justifies the means is not good public health. You also have to think about what putting the frighteners on people does to them. You have to consider shame, stigma and long term impact on the population's trust and willingness to engage.

True and I hated the fact that we were being taught to fear other people. Connection with other people to me is so important and one of the best things about life so being made to be afraid of closeness made me feel like the world was becoming a very dark and sad place.

My local paper has a double page spread all about getting boosted, really pissed me off today because I am housebound & have been ringing my GP surgery weekly to ask about my third jab (I am ECV) every week since December but they can't get their act together to come & get me jabbed, I had my second AZ last May.

Because by “solving” one problem, you may create another. You may not see it as a big problem, or it may be that we don’t know what the full knock-on effect is yet, but time will tell one way or the other

What other problem?

There is nothing wrong with these public health messages. Infact they are mild considering the circumstances

Are people seriously saying they are are traumatised by them?

We found them far too scary, especially for our young audience

Hahaha seriously. You've got to be joking?

I think two years in with vaccines and most people having a normal life now it's easy to say we went way over the top with restrictions and adverts etc ,but two years ago it was a very different matter it was a new virus ,scenes out of China and Italy were terrifying ,things have moved on so much people forget how bad it was in the early days , hindsight is a wonderful thing
I was a teen in the 80,s when Hiv and AIDS first hit the headlines ,we had tomb stone adverts and the whole don't die of ignorance campaign,my very Catholic mum wouldn't even drink communion wine she was so terrified of AIDS ,thankfully time and education moves on

@Flaxmeadow

We found them far too scary, especially for our young audience

Hahaha seriously. You've got to be joking?

Completely serious. Have you seen how anxious a lot of them are as a direct result of the pandemic? They didn't need that imagery to add to that, especially the younger teens who're (naturally) more sensitive. Protecting their mental health is massively important and where they're going to feel the longer term impact.

What's scary is that messaging was put alongside a reality others refuse to recognise some lived.

The reality of having to work for many and the reality of isolation Vs not eating for many too.

This divided the country and I think at some level it was designed to do so

@Flaxmeadow

Because by “solving” one problem, you may create another. You may not see it as a big problem, or it may be that we don’t know what the full knock-on effect is yet, but time will tell one way or the other

What other problem?

There is nothing wrong with these public health messages. Infact they are mild considering the circumstances

Are people seriously saying they are are traumatised by them?

I agree I don't find theses ads traumatising at all. I did find supporting my friend though her brother's death of Covid traumatising.I don't think those ads are too strong AT ALL given what we knew at the time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing

@Monsterathai

Some of those posters are an absolute disgrace- I've always said that I'm much more afraid of people's attitudes to covid (basically fascist / judgemental tendencies towards policing the behaviour of others) throughout this pandemic than the disease itself. Fucking terrifying.

Agree

I think it will be very interesting to look back in a few years and compare the messaging and approach during the AIDS crises, which also came in for a lot of criticism afterwards.

180k dead and you're worried about some public health ads? Save it for the AD threads, OP, the libertarian snowflakes on there lap this stuff up.

@OliveTree75

Hello, Been thinking recently how in years to come the Covid pandemic will most likely be studied in education all over the world. What do you think the views on the government messaging will be in the future? Looking back now, I find some of them hard to look at. We have been subjected to so much fear and whilst I agree we had to take action, I can’t help but wonder if some of these posters were a step too far.

Trying to restart the 'State of Fear' threads' again, OP?

These ads are a means to an end. Yes, they are confronting - they are meant to be. At a particular time in the pandemic, when deaths were high, public health messages can't be all cotton wool and 'Please do this'. That isn't something you will remember. You require a challenging directive. "Do this! Or this will happen!" This sticks in your mind far better.

And yes, they may be studied, but not in the way you believe.

As we didn’t know anything about it then they did what they thought was right, with the info to hand

Hindsight is great though, so you crack on

@OliveTree75

No - not a step too far. They look pretty similar to the public health adverts you see in doctors surgeries - advising against smoking, or what to do if someone has a stroke.

What is a step too far?

• Laura Dodsworth ‘in conversation’ with Nigel Farage over her ‘State of Fear’ book.

• anti vaxx and misinformation stickers stuck on the local playground gate clearly put there for my daughter to read

• misinformation being spread on social media

Etc, etc, etc…

The UK messaging for Covid has always been patronising, infantilising, confusing and basic scare-mongering.

Sticking to the facts and treating people like adults would have been better. The pandemic was serious enough not to have to resort to hyperbole.

I think the media and public health messaging hysteria was in fact counter-productive and helped create all these weird conspiracy theories and anti-vaxxers. Not to mention it gave fuel to a lot of self-righteous people who convinced themselves Covid was the new plague and they had the right to start snooping on and judging everyone else.

The government has lost all credibility anyway whatever the message is when it comes to Covid as so many of them simply ignored the rules.

@Flaxmeadow

Because by “solving” one problem, you may create another. You may not see it as a big problem, or it may be that we don’t know what the full knock-on effect is yet, but time will tell one way or the other

What other problem?

There is nothing wrong with these public health messages. Infact they are mild considering the circumstances

Are people seriously saying they are are traumatised by them?

You always create another problem. It may be a minor one, it may be a major one. I haven’t said anything about trauma. Actions have consequences, we may not yet know what the consequences of this messaging is - maybe only minor ones, maybe major ones, depends on your opinion perhaps. I don’t know why you think there wouldn’t be a knock-on effect with any kind of messaging. Presumably if the message had been “milder” and you felt that the response by the public wasn’t sufficiently afraid you would see this as a negative consequence of the messaging?

Why is Nigel garage suddenly being mentioned everywhere? I keep seeing his name popping up on threads here, is there some social media campaign for getting his name out there again?

I have to agree with you op, I've never suffered with any kind of health anxiety prior to covid. But it got to the point with the daily death tolls etc that I was too scared to go out for a walk once the lockdowns were lifted even though I live in a very rural area, left letters untouched for a few days on the floor by the front door, using gloves and antibac for any food deliveries etc. It took me a long time to get some normality back, which honestly made me feel pathetic and dramatic, but I couldn't help the anxiety I felt. And now we're being told that we don't need to isolate even if we test positive and the world is just back to normal. I still have that same fear because it has been continuously fed to us, and I can't just switch it off. Don't get me wrong, I want the world to go back to normal, but it's hard to just suddenly be absolutely fine with something we were told to be terrified of for the past two years

I agree with you OP. 1 poster I remember was on bus shelters with a message along the lines of (can't recall the exact words), "Is your journey worth someone else's life?" It completely ignored the fact that I and many others needed to take public transport in order to get to our jobs in care. Things were shitty enough for us anyway, without the implication that we were the reason people were dying.

It's nothing to do with hindsight. We knew well in advance of March 2020 about the public health problems with this sort of messaging. What some of you actually mean is that you didn't. But it wasn't new information.

I do remember that bus one. Nice bit of poor shaming it was. Essential workers, but not essential enough to deserve public transport.

but it's hard to just suddenly be absolutely fine with something we were told to be terrified of for the past two years

The circumstances has changed. We are in different position now compared to 2 years ago. We know more about the virus. We have vaccines. We have more treatment. It's not sudden that the message has changed. As a whole society, the danger is less severe now, but the individual risk will always be there, so it's up to us now how we deal with it, once national restrictions and rules are lifted.