There’s a good piece in the Telegraph today by Laura Dodsworth who argues that the fact the Government is holding off on imposing ‘Plan B’ restrictions “at this point” paints only one side of the picture. While new measures haven’t yet been introduced (or, rather, old, failed measures haven’t yet been reintroduced), “the threat of lockdown hangs like a Sword of Damocles”, ‘nudging’ us into courses of action we wouldn’t otherwise take. To put it simply: “Eat your vegetables, kids, or you’ll lose your right to dessert.”
There’s a chill in the air. Not from the changing seasons – it’s still fairly balmy – but from the latest attempts to orchestrate a subtle psychological manipulation of us all.
About 18 months ago, in the lockdown summer of 2020, I started to argue that the Government’s response to Covid is driven not so much by medical science or epidemiology, but instead by the psychological insights of behavioural scientists. In my book, A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the Covid Pandemic, I argue that controversial ‘nudge theory’ lies at the heart of Westminster’s response. It refers to sneaky attempts to prime, prepare and prod us into their desired mindset and course of action, without us ever realising we are being coerced.
Some responses to my book seemed naive. Many believed that Downing Street’s approach was genuinely grounded in public health epidemiology. Now, I think the dial is starting to move; the Government’s strategy becomes ever-more clear. Once nudge is seen, it can’t be unseen. Behavioural scientists were dazzling the public with card tricks. This week, the Government may have overplayed its hand.
On Tuesday, Professor Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College Epidemiologist whose modelling was used as the basis for the U.K.’s lockdown policy, made an illuminating comment on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “Nobody likes having their freedoms curtailed by measures but it’s prudent to be cautious, in everyday interactions certainly,” he told presenter Sarah Smith, “and wearing masks certainly helps that: it reminds people we’re not completely out of the woods yet.”
It was a startling admission, if we needed one, that masks are as much about psychology as they are about preventing infection. They act as a social cue, to use the language of behavioural scientists, nudging us into vigilance.
Then, on Wednesday, after NHS leaders urged the Government to implement its Covid ‘Plan B’ immediately (including the reimplementation of mandatory masks in crowded indoor spaces, and advice to work from home), Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng took to television to herald the “hard-won gains” Britain has eked out of lockdown, adding: “I don’t want to reverse back to a situation where we have lockdowns, I don’t think it’s necessary”. It was a deployment of the sunk-cost fallacy: we’ve come so far, we mustn’t allow our good work to be undone. Until hearing Kwarteng’s words, you mightn’t have known there was even a risk of another lockdown. But now the idea has been seeded in your mind, ever so subtly.
Yesterday, the Health Secretary Sajid Javid gave the first Downing Street briefing in a month – surely a portentous sign in itself… – in which he announced that Covid infections had risen 15% in a week, and warned that cases could hit 100,000 a day this winter.
But, he continued: “If we all play our part, then we can give ourselves the best possible chance in this race… [We can] get through this winter and enjoy Christmas with our loved ones.”
Why is Christmas even in doubt, an alarmed listener might think?
These psychological cues are carefully calibrated, more so than many realise.
Worth reading in full.
You can also read a non-paywalled piece by Laura on the topic of Government ‘nudges’ published in her Substack account here.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
No need to worry folks, there will be no more lockdowns!
(Until COP26 is over).
It’s amazing the Gates Foundation founded Telegraph still has the very occasional decent piece amongst all the propaganda and fear mongering. It still seems to be a freemason controlled publication, just look at yesterdays insider joke headline on the front page – Macron accused of lacking a ‘compass’
They seem to tell us some truth because they safely can, with the full knowledge that the vast majority of the population will sheep like go along with anything. They believe consent is gained by telling people what they are going to do in advance, hence the World Economic Forum constantly pushing out transhumanism material without resistance.
Odd that a long swab up the nose to test for a Coronavirus, is later treated with vaccines in the body for Covid with ARR Efficiency rates of 1·3% for the AstraZeneca–Oxford, 1·2% for the Moderna–NIH, 1·2% for the J&J, 0·93% for the Gamaleya, and 0·84% for the Pfizer–BioNTech vaccines according to The Lancet and Doctors For Covid Ethics and booster shots now lasting for just 2 months, with Covid being at least 98% efficient in killing you?
Covid Crusher: Mix one heaped teaspoon of Iodine table or sea salt in a mug of warm water, cup a hand and sniff or snort the entire mugful up your nose, spitting out anything which comes down into your mouth. If sore, then you have a virus, so continue morning noon and night, or more often if you want, until the soreness goes away (2-3 minutes) then blow out your nose and flush away, washing your hands afterwards, until when you do my simple cure, you don’t have any soreness at all, when you flush – job done. Also swallow a couple of mouthfuls of salt water and if you have burning in your lungs, salt killing virus and pneumonia there too.
… Read more »
Pfizer Vaccine Immunity Wanes at 2 Months, as Pharma Giant Seeks FDA Approval for Kids 5 to 11
A study from Israel covering 4,800 healthcare workers showed antibody levels waned rapidly after two doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. Meanwhile, Pfizer today officially asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize its vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old.
By Megan Redshaw
Two studies published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine confirm any immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine drops off after roughly two months — although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong, the authors of the studies said.
A prospective longitudinal study from Israel covering 4,800 healthcare workers showed antibody levels waned rapidly after two doses of vaccine “especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older and among persons with immunosuppression.”
Antibodies were tested during the baseline period defined as four to 17 days after receipt of a second vaccine dose, and every four weeks thereafter over a six-month period.
The highest titers after receipt of the second vaccine dose were observed during days four through 30, so this was defined as the peak period.
Because researchers could… Read more »
COVID vaccine fetal tissue obtained by the murder of an infant?
For people who missed it, here is my (jonrappoport CanadaFreePress) article from yesterday:
Was COVID vaccine fetal tissue obtained by the murder of an infant?
With the release of COVID vaccines, and then the mandates, we’ve seen a new resurgence of people attempting to gain religious exemptions.
Many of these attempts focus on fetal tissue obtained through abortion.
On January 19, 2021, AnnaMaria Cardinalli published an explosive article in Crisis Magazine, headlined, “Catholic Conscience and the COVID-19 Vaccine.”
Cardinalli details the collection of fetal tissue for the cell line named HEK 293. This cell line was used for “testing” the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Cardinalli writes:
“We know that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines do not use any cells derived from abortion in the production process. That is, we know that we are not being directly injected with fetal cells or their engineered descendants (though this fact differs with other manufacturers). We hear that the abortion-derived cell lines were only used in testing, which should somehow comfort us, though it still means that the vaccines from which we seek to benefit depend on the involvement of abortion. We are… Read more »
Children are up to 16 times more likely to die with Covid-19 if they’ve had the Covid Vaccine
By The Exposé on October 22, 2021
The latest report from the UK Health Security Agency shows that the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England’s decision to recommend all children over the age of 12 should be vaccinated against Covid-19 was a huge mistake because the data shows children are 16 times more likely to die with Covid-19 if they have been vaccinated.
Chris Whitty; the CMO for England, overruled the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on the 13th September 2021 and wrote a letter to the UK Government advising them to offer the Pfizer Covid-19 injection to all children over the age of 12 with immediate effect.
The decision was of course highly controversial due to the following reasons –
· 86% of children suffered an adverse reaction to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in the clinical trial
· 1 in 9 children suffered a severe adverse reaction leaving them unable to perform daily activities in the Pfizer clinical trial
· Just 9 deaths associated with Covid-19 have occurred in children since March 2020 up to August 25th 2021
· The risk of… Read more »
Former Pfizer VP: 0.84% ‘Clear evidence of fraud’ in Pfizer study claiming 95% efficacy
posted by Mordechai Sones September 30, 2021 10:58 am
America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) Chief Science Officer Dr. Michael Yeadon yesterday said there is “clear evidence of fraud” in the Pfizer study that purports to claim 95% efficacy in their COVID-19 “vaccine”.
Yeadon was commenting on an article appearing in The Lancet and critiquing a documentary that scrutinized a Pfizer efficacy study, calling the distinction raised therein between relative risk reduction and absolute risk reduction “accurate”.
The Lancet article, entitled COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and effectiveness—the elephant (not) in the room, says that although attention has focused on vaccine efficacy and comparing the reduction of the number of symptomatic cases, “fully understanding the efficacy and effectiveness of vaccines is less straightforward than it might seem. Depending on how the effect size is expressed, a quite different picture might emerge.”
The article continues: “Vaccine efficacy is generally reported as a relative risk reduction (RRR). It uses the relative risk (RR)—ie, the ratio of attack rates with and without a vaccine—which is expressed as 1–RR. Ranking by reported efficacy gives relative risk reductions of 95% for the Pfizer–BioNTech, 94% for the… Read more »
UKHSA report shows Vaccinated accounted for 82% of Covid-19 Deaths & 65% of Hospitalisations in England over the past 4 weeks
By The Exposé on October 22, 2021
The latest figures published by the new UK Health Security Agency on Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths show that the Covid-19 injections still don’t seem to be working.
The ‘Covid-19 Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 42’ was published by the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) on Thursday, 21st October 2021 and it shows that the vast majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations between September 20th and October 17th were among the fully vaccinated population.
Table 3 of the report shows that the number of people presenting to emergency care with Covid-19 resulting in overnight inpatient admission who were not-vaccinated was 2,534, whilst a further 305 were partly vaccinated, and 4,486 were fully vaccinated.
Meaning between September 20th and October 17th, 65% of those hospitalised with Covid-19 were vaccinated whilst 35% were not-vaccinated.
However, the above figures unfortunately are not reflected in the number of Covid-19 deaths, because whilst the majority were yet again among the fully vaccinated, the difference between the vaccinated and not-vaccinated was much greater.
Table 4 of the report… Read more »
In case no one has already provided this link, here is Laura’s complete article:
https://archive.md/rZqtr
Just look at the bbc HYS for 5 minutes. They are literally climbing over themselves for more restrictions which will “save us from lockdown”. Oh dear master we will do anything to avoid another lockdown.
Saw the start of question time last night. Whole panel united in their quest for more restrictions.
BBC look easy newscaster last night constantly asking the guest when will we have more restrictions.
Coupled with the denial of lockdown and Javids press conference this all seems way too Coordinated! I smell yet another rat.
I bought the original of Bob’s cartoon here. So perfectly captures the sentiment.
Fuckwit Ferguson is NOT an epidemiologist 🤬 He’s a physicist using some very poor quality mathematical modelling to make exaggerated forecasts. Why is he continually allowed by commentators to keep giving epidemiology such a bad name?
A succinct statement of what lies underneath all the infantile deception being perpetrated by governments worldwide but especially in the West: the transhumanist control agenda:
“Towards Digital Tyranny? # Say No To The Covid Vaccine Passport – Analysis By Peter Koenig / globalresearchtv”
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Ky9ItfvljJLE/
December. Happy Xmas, John. Happy Xmas, Yoko
The Week 42 Covid vaccine surveillance report is out. Remember, these are the numbers the government is prepared to let us see. As usual, there’s a big emphasis on the rates of Covid cases/hospitalisations/deaths that suit the narrative, although they ignore some of the more obvious ratios. A few highlights amongst over 18s in weeks 38-41:
of over 450,000 Covid cases, 339,317 were more than 14 days after the second jab and c. 63,000 were unjabbed nearly 4,500 of the c. 6,700 cases hospitalised were >14 days after second jab 3,347 of the 6,195 who died within either 28 or 60 days of a positive test were >14 days post second jab compared with 1,140 unjabbed If they want a ratio to put the cat amongst the pigeons, I think this means that the Covid infection fatality ratio for double-jabbed people over 18 during this period was 0.73% as opposed to 0.25% for the unjabbed.
The report openly admits the unreliability of most of its source data and the obvious fact that, for small demographic groups, a minor change to the numerator or denominator can significantly skew the ratios. Nevertheless, it would be interesting to see how people reacted… Read more »
With most of the country vaccinated we’re headed, they tell us, for a case-rate nearly 70% higher than at the worst previous point, before vaccine rollout. Heaven help us in five years time, since the virus seems to be causing negative immunity. Damned cunning, these Chinese (to quote the Goons).
Does anybody remember the pre Covid days when the elderly died of old age?
I understand the average age of dying with a positive test is 85 with 5 or more co-morbilities. Shocking when such young people are taken from us.
It was 5 health conditions if you were jabbed but only 4 if you were organic!
🤣 🤣 🤣
..
The answer to all of these question is We don’t know this. Hence, asking them is useless.
From what I’ve read, the push is for Vaccine passports for everyone. This includes a lot of institutions, WEF, to control your money, WHO to control the constant vaccine roll out, and then the Green/sustainable planet, which the other controls will contribute to, travel will be restricted, heat will be restricted, power, vehicles, food, if they have your money in global banks they control you, if you need a passport to get the things you need they control you. The sick freaks need to be stopped..
Our freedoms belong to us by right! Just who do these fascists think they are?
They can go swivel!
Remember when a three week lockdown was all that was needed to ‘save us’? Then the regime said masks and distancing was the answer. Then tracking our movements, tracing us and making us isolate was the way out. Then they said injecting the vulnerable with experimental gene therapy was the answer. Then the path back to normal was to inject everyone, including babies and children. Then they said our way out of the plandemic was to force even more toxic chemicals into us. Well – all this compliance has simple moved us to the position they wanted us in two years ago – back to square one with yet more promises of normality if we accept the vax pass movement licence. So now we have the same regime stooges and their media partners in crime busily manufacturing consent for their full spectrum surveillance/movement control system – which they will tell us is the only way to ‘save the NHS’, prevent lockdown, have an Xmas or whatever. This control system will exclude dissenters from society by denying them access to goods, services, jobs and the means to feed their families and keep a roof over their head. It will, in essence,… Read more »
Bingo. The vaxxports – social credit score apps – were always the goal. As you say, they measure compliance. That is their purpose, and, as in the Mandarin Empire, they will be used to eliminate non-compliance through rewards and punishments.
Don’t worry though: as long as you go where you’re told to go, work where you’re told to work, pay what you’re told to pay, eat what you’re told to eat, say what you’re told to say, rent what you’re told to rent, and think what you’re told to think, you’ll be permitted to keep doing all of the above.
There will also be a lot of ‘exemptions’, hence the compliance from our own traitors
Are we not going to get vaccine passports foisted on us (plan B) and be told – well its better than lockdown (plan C)
We will have to pretend that the ‘vaccines’ stop people catching or spreading the virus that causes covid – of course it doesn’t but the government is desperate for vaccine digit ID passports for some
pay outreasoninterestingly…
The World Health Organization recently released a guiding document for a digital vaccine certificate that will be blockchain based. This is to be used to implement a vaccine passport in every country and is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & Rockefeller Foundation.
Link: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-2019-nCoV-Digital_certificates-vaccination-2021.1
from…
https://www.independentinformation.co.uk/resources/articles/covid-vaccines-safe-effective
The Behavioural Psychopaths need to be locked up, its disgusting what they’ve been allowed to do to this country. I mentioned earlier https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coercive-or-controlling-behaviour-now-a-crime,
it must be able to be used against them, its criminal what they’re doing.
They should to be put in front of a firing squad – why should we pay to keep them?
Why waste a lot of expensive bullets and people’s time on something as worthless as that. Declare them outlaws and see for how long they manage to shield among their fans.
Sell them into slavery. They can work 14 hours per day six days per week without holidays. On the seventh day they spend at least six hours on their knees in chains making a repentance.
The main point of face masks is selling them. Maybe also a little make Chinese guys in the UK less uncomfortable by integrating into their culture, something they usually demand. But at least insofar I’m concerned, that’s horseshit. If they’re uncomfortable with foreigners in foreign countries behaving in foreign ways, they can just stay among themselves in China.
A poll in the Daily Mirror is saying 58% for more restrictions, 42% against. That’s probably close to what government propagandists wanted. Now work will be done on reducing the 42%. Next time, those who were in that 42% and who changed their view (in most cases because they couldn’t spare the effort to continue going against the majority) will be less keen on taking the “anti” side. This is one way of “moving the envelope”.
I don’t believe any polls anymore, especially those from the government’s propaganda media.
There was a supposed poll in the Mail some time ago where, over a 2-page spread, the Mail claimed that Brits approved of kids being jabbed. This was after interviewing a whole 1007 people! My initial thought was why they hadn’t asked a corollary question, do you know what’s in this ‘vaccine’? That would have been far more illuminating. That article, together with that shrill Amanda Platell going on about giving up friends who are not jabbed, were the last straws for me. After 40 years of readership I ditched the Mail for good.
Until they realize its without furlough support!
If anyone, let alone Government of whom I have a basic mistrust, even begins to phsycholoically or otherwise, force me into a corner I immediately say no. Then I look for their motive. That led me to understanding so much about Covid and the mess our “Betters” got us into. It all has nothing whatsoever to do with peoples health and I imagine most Ministers believe it does.
As the article states “Once nudge is seen, it can’t be unseen” just like one of those pictures where you look for hours for the hidden image and suddenly it pops out. Plenty of us know what the real hidden image in all this is.
So the government are playing this game again: get another vaccine shot, or you’ll lose your freedoms. Doubling down on an ‘escape’ policy that has been a dismal failure. Below is the latest snapshot.
We are becoming enslaved: Though it be worse (presently) in other countries (France, Italy, Australia…), our fundamental freedoms are suspended on giving in to an experimental drugs regime for the rest of our lives, with the government as chief drugs pusher beholden to a drugs cartel.
Today it is the ‘vaccine’, tomorrow your ‘green’ credentials etc as we slide into the totalitarian Chinese ‘social credit’ system of control. Having basic common law rights and freedoms is no longer the default position: the new normal is that you are banged up in jail and merely dispensed little bits of temporary relief by the jailor dependent on your fawning compliance.
If enough people told the government where to go, this nonsense would stop!
I don’t much care to be threatened by anybody about anything, least of all by the droid designated “SOSFHASC”, and this latest garbage is in no whit different to any other form of terrorism and coercion.
The whole sorry thing is like the gambler at the roulette wheel, who repeatedly bets all his money on the same number, losing every time, but compelled to keep on. In this case, it’s the “vaccines” slot. Maybe there’s a pot of Pfizer gold at the end, if he keeps playing, and other prizes besides.
Round here, the more easily-swayed (mostly ladies of a certain age) are bursting with eagerness to be boosted, and to resume their Johnson slave masks.
The public will be offered a ‘choice’ either get boosters and jab your kids + accept the vax passport, or you’ll force us to put you back into lockdown.
The Government are abusing their powers to get the passports in by any means necessary.
If only the public could get rid of the Stockholm syndrome…
They delayed jabbing the oldies to start jabbing the kids, and they lost on both counts. If they lockdown now, the bribes will have to be resumed. Maybe we should just ignore them, and see what they do.
Unfortunately we make up a tiny proportion of the population, and numbers matter
We may be small in number but if we stick together you watch more of those who are starting to question will join, look at what Ghandi did, Look at Rosa Parkes, just got to unleash your inner Lion
But people are dying from these products even under countries own reporting systems each Government must be able to see that, also they are not protecting from the covid flu, so why are they persisting with this demonic drive to inject us all?
I just fail to understand their behaviour, why isn’t anyone in Governments apart from Rand Paul in the States saying anything? they cannot all be evil so what is going on?
Lockdown – didn’t work
Social distancing – didn’t work
Testing and tracing – didn’t work
Masks – didn’t work
‘Vaccines’ – didn’t work
Can we just let people’s immune systems get on with it, let doctors do their best to help and get back to normal life?
How many more government experiments do we have to endure before THE DEMENTED POPULATION OF THE FUCKING COUNTRY REALISE THEIR GOVERNMENT ISN’T GOING TO SAVE THEM BUT ACTUALLY DESTROY THEIR LIVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Quite a few more, unfortunately
I wish people would stop referring to Neil Ferguson as an epidemiologist even Laura is doing it. He’s a fuckwitt and stupid one at that. Although I suppose he’s getting loads of dosh from BG.
The only reference to him being an epidemiologist on his Wikipedia entry is a very dodgy looking page – https://acmedsci.ac.uk/fellows/fellows-directory/ordinary-fellows/fellow/Professor-Neil-Ferguson-0006236
He’s as much as an epidemiologist as I am a chest of draws; he is a Physicist. He holds no medical qualifications whatsoever. However he is a lying, corrupt, charlatan scumbag!! I think we can all agree on that one.
Reportedly, he has a degree in theoretic physics. But he is a single-project programmer with neither formal training nor any experience worth mentioning (ie, experience with real-world code beyond his single project).
He’s an amateur IT tinkerer. The kind of person who, if left to his own devises in the real world of work, goes behind the backs of IT departments setting up his own web of Microsoft Access databases all over the place. Once the business realises what a piece of shit they are, it costs a fortune to undo the damage. A little knowledge within someone who can’t see their own limitations is a very, very dangerous thing.
He has obviously got someone in Government by the goolies, this bloke has consistently got the predictions wrong since way pre covid, it was this mastermind that put farmers out of business by the unneccessary culling of millions of livestock during the foot and mouth outbreak, this charmer also called the swinflu epidemic wrong along with the SARS out break. If he was a horse in the Grand National you could be a multi millionaire by now predicting that he will always be the last horse in the race.
You know those paper folded origami games we used to play when kids with numbers on and your mate had to pick a number then you would press the points together the requisite number of times to get the prediction? well we couldn’t have done worse in using one of those to predict numbers against Ferguson, it would have had greater accuracy, been a lot cheaper, less ugly, and wouldn’t keep popping up on TV like an unfluchable turd the way Ferguson does,