How fear is being used to control us

This is the Dsound version of the podcast I posted two days ago

For those under 70, the risk of dying from Covid-19 is extremely slim, yet the fear about this disease verges on hysteria.

The release of the minutes of the secretive SAGE scientific advisory group that advises the UK government indicates that this fear has been deliberately ramped up.

The paper was prepared by SAGE's behavioural science sub-group, for discussion at SAGE number 18 on the 23rd March, the day that lockdown was announced.

A paragraph headed "Persuasion" said:

"Perceived threat:

"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, although levels of concern may be rising.

"Having a good understanding of the risk has been found to be positively associated with adoption of COVID-19 social distancing measures in Hong Kong. The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging."

This meeting was held on the same day that lockdown was announced in the UK, and in the same week that the Prime Minister's Chief Aide, Dominic Cummings, flouted the lockdown by travelling 260 miles to stay with relatives.

Professor Neil Ferguson was also a member of the SAGE group, although he resigned from the role after being caught flouting the lockdown. The people who impose these social distancing rules don't seem to take them very seriously, which suggests that they are more about controlling the population and ushering in legislation that tramples our civil rights, than keeping us safe and saving the NHS.

A full transcript of this podcast is available at this link: http://imaginingfreedom.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Transcript-Imagining-Freedom-Episode-9.pdf

SHOW NOTES

News on how Cummings flouted lockdown rules:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52779356

Ivor Cummings link for edited UK Column show on the SAGE behavioural science group: