This is a book about fear. Fear of a virus. Fear of death. Fear of losing our jobs, our democracy, our human connections, our health and our minds. It’s also about how the government weaponised our fear against us – supposedly in our best interests – until we were the most frightened country in Europe. But why did the government deliberately frighten us, and how has this affected us as individuals and as a country? Who is involved in the decision-making that affects our lives? How are behavioural science and nudge theory being used to subliminally manipulate us? How does the media leverage fear? What are the real risks to our wellbeing? Ahead of any official inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Laura Dodsworth explores all these questions and more, in a nuanced and thought-provoking discussion of an extraordinary year in British life and politics. With stories from members of the general public who were impacted by fear, anxiety and isolation, and revealing interviews with psychologists, politicians, scientists, lawyers, Whitehall advisers and journalists, A State of Fear calls for a more hopeful, transparent and effective democracy.
Laura Dodsworth is an author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker and has been described as a ‘latter-day punchy Cassandra’ and a ‘Slayer of Taboos’. Her books Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their stories, Manhood: The Bare Reality and Womanhood: The Bare Reality have attracted worldwide media coverage and excellent reviews.
Laura and the creation of Womanhood were the subject of a documentary for Channel 4, 100 Vaginas, which received 5 star reviews and has been broadcast around the world.
Her latest book is A State of Fear: how the UK government weaponised fear during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The longer lockdown ONE went on throughout the spring & early summer of 2020, the more I felt, deep down, that something was wrong. The amount of fear and anxiety and non covid harms millions of people in the UK were being exposed to simply felt sinister to me. As 2020 left me and my family separated by isolation, distance and ‘bubbles’ (a warm and fuzzy word for a government rule) I became more and more fearful and anxious: not about the virus, but for the loss of humanity. During this 15 months (and counting) of the covid response I have lost much: a business, a year of my grandchildren's development, and my freedom to live the lifestyle me and my partner have worked hard for.
I have also lost friends. I spoke out about my fears for: our nations young, our elderly, our teenagers, our students, our sick, our lonely, our mental health, our undiagnosed cancers, the 3million+ excluded from support ... when I voiced my opinion that lockdowns do more harm than good, and called for targeted protection, I was called selfish and a bully ... You know something is wrong when the people you thought had a similar moral compass to your own, actually do not. When some of the people you counted as friends actually have little empathy for your own troubles and anxieties, because they don’t believe you are doing enough to protect them (even though you are being fully ‘compliant’) you know something is off... That people were being manipulated by fear. If you didn’t follow the government fed narrative, you were in the wrong: a non believer, a denier. A danger to your friends and family. This heartfelt and human analysis of the tactics used by our leaders to keep us in line during a health crisis should be read by everyone ( even those who are still true believers in lockdowns & mandates) because everyone needs to understand that those images ( Look into their eyes) were not and never will be ethical.
- if anyone cares about this country and the truth this is a must read. I cannot thank Laura Dodsworth enough for laying out the facts of what has occurred over the past 15 month period.
Absolutely outstanding! I rate this the highest of any book I've ever read. Laura Dodsworth has written the best book on the covid-19 insanity.This is focused on what has happened in the UK. If I could give 10 stars for a book this one would get and out of all the books I've read and listened to, if I had to recommend one book to give to the true-believers this would be it. She is so much on the same page as me I'm delighted to have read it.
I think this is one of the first of many books that will pick apart the Covid crisis and slaughter many of its sacred cows to absolutely no receptive ears other than the already cynical or sceptical. After all, those of us in the anti-lockdown camp “know” the strategy is a waste of time and resources. We know mask wearing is ineffective and is all about us showing visibly that we’re all in it together. We know about Sweden, Texas, Florida, we know about the lack of excess deaths, that it’s the old and vulnerable who are at risk, as they always have been to outbreaks of winter flu virus. We’ve known all this for at least nine months but, at the time of writing, we’re still in lockdown. We lost the argument a long time ago. This book concedes that point, but is more interested in showing how the argument was lost. Anyone wanting to question the strategy was up against a government and media bombarding the population with scare stories, terrifying videos, questionable statistics, daily death counts, scapegoating contrarians and a welter of other techniques that have been proven to brainwash populations. It’s a blistering analysis but it begins to lose momentum when it tries, I felt, to gild the lily by pulling in conspiracy theories and global plotting by governments without explaining why they would consider doing such a thing. To enrich a few individuals with bald heads and white cats? The Great Reset? This government clearly couldn’t coordinate a school picnic never mind a strategic push for societal reorganisation. And we’re a lot better organised than the EU or the USA when it comes to pulling (or being nudged and pushed) together. I feel the Great Reset is baloney and the book is diminished by taking it quite seriously. I’m not sure if interviewing a camouflaged prepper in a B&Q carpark, with his Land Rover (natch) stuffed full of food supplies added anything to the argument. I bought this book on Kindle, but when I looked for it in my local Waterstones I couldn’t find it. Contrarian views to the lockdown strategy are hard to find and you do wonder if they are being suppressed? What worries me though is that this could be because the majority of people aren’t interested. They’re quite happy with lockdown, taking the vaccine, accepting that Big Government basically has their best interests at heart. I often wonder what would Britain have done if it was found that cats were transmitting the virus and the government decreed that they all needed to be put down? There would be a massive kickback and rebellion. The fact is that many, many people quite liked the lockdown and pretty much embraced it. After all, the TV was still working, the internet too and have you tried that Prossecco on offer in Aldi? Still affordable even on furlough. In the end I’m not sure we succumbed to “state of fear”. It was more a state of indifference, and it’s still out there.
Debated giving this 2 stars but decided an “okay read” was a step too far for this badly researched, biased book
The book starts out with a couple of body language experts examining Boris Johnson’s body language whilst delivering the first stay at home speech aka “fright night”. Apparently one can tell from the fact he clenched his fists he was lying and didn’t really believe what he was saying.
She repeats throughout the book that the public were told death figures but there was no coverage of those who survived….hmmm Boris Johnson’s name springs to mind, the white knuckled one. There were also many stories of people being clapped as they left hospital.
The models predicted x deaths a day and that never happened! Correct it didn’t happen because steps were taken.
“I liked him. He was open, where others were sometimes guarded, and he enjoyed the process of our ‘interviews’ because they encouraged him to look at different perspectives. “
“Clapping for carers was Stalinist.”
And, one of my personal favourites: “My creative nature leads me to confront the points of tension.”
Asymptomatic transmission is not a serious risk apparently.
Some excellent insights but while the overall thesis is very persuasive it is not the product of in depth research, and it's a very quick read. Dodsworth is writing a counter-propaganda narrative, but she is dealing with a largely inscrutable system well-concealed from public view. Very few people in key positions are willing to disclose their part in all the fear-mongering, and those that have mostly withheld their names. Most shocking in all this though, is the role of behavioural psychologists employed by the government to used fear-tactics to gaslight the public into compliance. The author includes anecdotal accounts from ordinary people who have suffered horribly during lockdown but I would much rather have had more hard evidence - perhaps a detailed analysis of how the propaganda campaign unfolded from A-Z, the ads, the messaging, the exaggerated doom-mongering, the threats and promises, the precise methodology.
An interesting lack of evidence to support some of her wilder claims about the pandemic, as well as a curious skipping over of items that debunk her belief. I especially found it curious when the text claimed that the pre-Christmas shopping rush, coupled with breaches of regulations over Xmas didn't lead to any increase in cases or deaths while the attached graph showed this cla to be false. I found it interesting that so many of her sources appeared to wish to remain anonymous, and that she seems to have missed the many stories of recovery that I have certainly read. I look forward to her analysis of how the right have 'weaponised' the concept of freedom when it comes to the handling of the pandemic. Nice to know that the author feels that those who died (around 128k in the UK as I type this) were somehow not worth worrying about- they were over 60 in the main, is the argument and therefore expendable?
Regrettably not a single thing stated in this book seemed exaggerated or outlandish, which is a testament to the veracity of the author, and the unjustifiable pandemic response enacted by the UK Government.
The Government are preparing to extend the current lockdown beyond June 21st 2021 despite there only being ~150 people in hospital being treated for Covid-19, from a population of over 67,000,000. The seeding has already begun. They allege it is not safe yet, and thanks to the overwhelming collective neurosis of the country, inspired by the weaponised fear discussed in this book, it seems likely that the largely supine and terrified public will allow this insanity to continue unabated.
It's good, clearly well-researched and an easy read, though I imagine its main audience is those who know all this stuff anyway. My only problem with it is that it's only half the story, as it makes no mention of WHY so much effort and so many millions of £££ were put into this massive operation. However, it's definitely worth reading, and if anyone has a friend or relative who is still quaking in their boots at the thought of taking off their masks, you should buy them this as an early Christmas present.
3.5/5 (Raised from 2.5 as I was writing the Review)
Quick Snapshot Review:
Cons: - A book heavily laced with Value judgements
- The vast majority of "evidence" put forward is either from known biased media sources, or, in some cases, manipulated to support her narrative. (ex. The very first quote taken from the SPI-B. only part of the paragraph was used, which creates shock content when out of context.) I'd urge you to read the full 8 page document.
- Whether intended or not, there is a blatant use of manipulative language used throughout the book. Ironic given the topics discussed around emotional manipulation. (ex. emotional and anecdotal stories given by anonymous individuals.) Names are still attributed to each piece to keep personality and therefore allow greater emotional evocation. Some of the stories don't even flow like pieces that would be written by genuine people.
- Laura sews the seeds of her own biases throughout the book (ex. Anti-Left political position) The vast majority of these biases are not supported factually and are instead "Agreed with" by whatever anonymous "Specialist" she is currently interviewing.
- A self Proclaimed Armchair specialist who's read multiple articles (Primarily Right-Biased, unreliable sourced, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, etc (I'd urge you to fact check these websites yourself, Laura has also written for these sources herself, interesting)). She's also admits to having started her "Research" for this book based on her own fear. This is most likely going to lead you down a path of prejudiced work.
Pros:
- Some interesting points, especially from a philosophical standpoint. The state of fear definitely peaks behind the curtains in regards to the human condition. Fear, undoubtedly has been used during the UK pandemic. This book really does show you the lengths that people will go to in order to "Cure" themselves of fear. (social compliance, The shunning of individuals who don't fall in line with social compliance. The need to be guided through uncertainty) Its thought provoking for sure.
- Ethics are at it's heart. Though me and Laura definitely divide somewhere down the line, I do believe her ethical compass is spot on when it comes to discussing the actions of the current governments approach to Covid-19.
- It allows the reader to see a different perspective. Though I do feel the demographic of this book will be a niche set of people who already fall into this line of thinking and are looking for "evidence" to confirm their prior beliefs. I would say that this book has value to those who differ in opinion from its narrative. Ultimately understanding is at the heart of great conversation and this book can definitely lead to a greater, more- informed debate between interlocutors.
Overall, when approached with a balanced mindset, I actually think this may be an important piece of literature in our current time. as previously mentioned I feel that gaining an understanding of differing views is only going to benefit dialogue going forward, we are currently more divided than ever and the first step to social reparations (I believe) is to take a step back from our own pre-conceived views, learn to understand opposing views and ultimately engage better. "The State of Fear" is definitely an enabler of this path.
It's a good thing Laura Dodsworth wrote this book but it is likely most of the readers will be people already sympathetic to her angle on the Covid-19 situation.
The early part of the book talks about psi-ops and this should perhaps have been explored further. It is very notable that in early 2020 we were shown videos of people supposedly collapsing in the streets in China. The mainstream media shared these videos uncritically but whatever you think about Covid-19, we now know collapsing spontaneously is not a symptom. Therefore, that situation is very creepy to look back on. Who staged those videos and why did they do it? Why did the media not question their validity?
The main theme of this book is the government's use of behavioural scientists. I wonder what percentage of the adult population has any idea whatsoever that behavioural scientists have been prominent of the Covid-19 messaging. My guess would be it is extremely small.
Even if you think Covid-19 is really terrible, it cannot be denied that the last year and a half represent the biggest effort to terrorize the UK population in living memory.
People have now become superstitious and addicted to rituals that are only tenuously linked to pandemic prevention. Worryingly, after the vaccine rollout, a sizeable amount of the adult population has not changed a bit.
Where I live, people continue to wear masks despite having a vaccine we were told would allow normal life to return. People sit at desks behind plexiglass still wearing a mask. What do they think that is doing? People use hand sanitiser after handling cash, despite scientific evidence proving that transmission does not occur via cash. People walk around in parks, by themselves, with a mask on. What is that mask possibly doing to keep them alive? I know a woman who hasn't stepped onto a train or walked into a café, pub or restaurant since 2019 because she thinks the moment she does she could catch Covid-19 and die.
You can acknowledge that Covid-19 is bad whilst also acknowledging that there has been enormous propaganda designed to frighten people. To varying degrees, this propaganda has driven people insane and possibly insane beyond help. The bigger question about this is why. If Covid-19 is so dreadful and bad, why did we need to engage in an enormous propaganda campaign to convince everyone of that? If there were more proper journalists in the UK, this question would be asked and debated in an open-ended, grown-up way.
"If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind it is now possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it. from Propaganda by Edward Bernays quoted on page 58
This book is both disturbing, comforting, and probably the most controversial book I've read this year. It's written by a highly opinionated journalist and her biases come out at times which is a clear flaw BUT despite that I think it is still a very important book.
The average person will strongly disagree with the conclusions of this book and the points I state below summarising it, but please pause and reflect on the figures and the context and the facts, don't take your initial reaction as your conclusion.
The thesis of the book is that (1) from March 2020 until the present day the UK government has intentionally worked to keep the population terrified in order to keep us compliant with guidance and regulations. AND (2) this has been extremely harmful, unjustifiable and morally reprehensible.
In the UK in 2020 we had our highest death rate since.... 2008, and yet many thought we were living through an apocalypse - an attitude no one had in 2008. Why such a difference in perception?
Covid-19 is an unpleasant virus BUT if you're under 65 your risk of death upon catching it was less than 1%, shrinking as low as 0.1% for under 40s (numbers from Imperial college London Covid-19 report 34, quoted on page 268).
Why have we been told Covid death numbers every day for 16 months almost never with the context of the 1500+ deaths that would occur on a normal non-covid day in the UK? Why do we all suddenly want the government to keep us safe from death, something they're not capable of doing? As Laura says on page 267 "If you don't accept that you will die one day, that you can never be safe, then you are a sitting duck for authoritarian policies which purport to be for your safety."
For this book Laura interviewed scientists, government advisors, politicians, civil liberty campaigners, doctors and normal individuals affected in various ways; she has also read a lot of the literature from every side.
This book documents: 1. How the media and the UK government worked to make the British people terrified of Covid 2. The use of bad science, exaggerations, guesses and outright lies to produce compliance with Covid regulations. 3. The censorship and suppression of highly qualified scientists who disagreed with the narrative. 4. The repeated breaches of normal ethical standards for the use of psychology and advertising to influence people. 5. The religious nature of it - from the government sponsored "clap for carers" (started "spontaneously" by a lady with a friend at 10 downing street...) to the use of masks often more as a visual cue of adherence than any medical purpose. 6. The effects and serious harms done by all of this - adding up all of the "side effects" of covid measures used in the UK and the knock-ons they will have over the coming years they are likely to kill several times the number of people who've died of the virus. In fact the Covid measures are likely (over some years) to cost more lives than even the early worst case estimates of Covid deaths.
The personal touch After each chapter there's a personal story recounting how an individual has been affected, in some ways these are a propaganda trick, telling you that some percentage of our youth are now on anti-depressants who weren't before doesn't strike home the same as reading the account of a mother finding her son after he attempted suicide, page 194.
Using personal stories like this is manipulative and pushes you to make an emotional response rather than just responding to the presented facts. But - for the last 16 months the media has been full of stories of individuals suffering from or dying of covid, stories cynically used to increase compliance with regulations, to reduce complaints and to persuade us to overlook the suffering caused by the regulations and guidance.
Why you should read this: - this is the single biggest issue of our time - unless you've been living under a rock you've been served a hefty dose of propaganda daily for over a year - this book gives you the other side - this gives you some interesting insight into how group psychology works
Questions not answered - why did our government implement such policies? - why did they carry on with them for over a year when there is no solid evidence they worked? - why did they lie to us, and manipulate data to make lockdowns look far more effective than the actual evidence says?
Laura doesn't answer these questions - as there are no certain answers, the best guess is an initial panic followed by an extreme case of the sunk cost fallacy.
LD is an unashamed lockdown skeptic; and a covid skeptic too, in terms of downplaying the significance of the virus. In this I have some sympathy with her, but am not a full on demonstrating, anti-masker. And to be fair to her, LD does provide some coherent argument for her position, even if it is bookended with rants.
The main position of the book however is a diatribe against the 'Nudge Unit'. If you are not sure what that is, look up the book, Inside the Nudge Unit. In short is is the effort by behavioural psychologists to 'nudge' populations into compliance with government goals, rather than forcing behavioural change by law. Again LD makes some decent arguments against nudging, but always bookended with rants. the text is poorly put together - reading more as a series of badly coordinated blogs strung together by a half-hearted publisher into a book.
Where 'nudging' meets covid we have, for instance, a government that does not want to mandate vaccine passports, but will instead nudge the population with strategy such as allowing business to force staff to take vaccines, or pushing health service nudges via the NHS app. LD feels this is duplicitous. Perhaps she has a good point, but for me, having read the Nudge Unit book, I see behavioural science being used more to word tax bills cleverly in order to maximise prompt payment, rather than an imposition on my freedom and liberty.
Anyway, the book seemed messy, repetitious, and somewhat ranty, though not without some fair arguments.
Rated 1 star due to high level of value judgements, biased 'research', and significant levels of speculation. While I believe the UK government has done a poor judgement, this book conflates the issues of poor management and cautious scientific advice.
Further, cherry picked data was used within this book, for example, LD states no community based mask wearing data showed a benefit, however, at the time of publication multiple peer reviewed randomised community trials have shown a reduction in transmission due to mask wearing.
I got part way through this before giving up - it's written like reading the drivel in Facebook comment threads. I have my own opinions on how the UK government handled the COVID pandemic (based on things which came to light after this book came out, partygate etc.), but the author comparing lockdown to concentration camps is bizarre, amongst other weird tone-deaf metaphors. "A State of Fear..." came out in 2021, and I fail to see how the author didn't think this might have been a bit premature.
I think reading this now the that enquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic makes it stand out more. The Author has done incredible extensive and credible research. This is not based on conspiracy theory or denial that COVID was real. Far from it. Perhaps it should be renamed the PanPanic.
With insight into real things like the “Government Think Tank”, essentially a group of PR people giving advice on how to put things across to the public. Particularly how to make messages so frightening that people will follow very strict, even illogical rules. I don’t know you, but on reflection I can see how that fear of catching COVID and dying dominated our lives. Is it now somewhat ridiculous that we couldn’t even walk in a park where a few other people walked also?
The Government certainly seemed not only unaffected like the rest of us to the messages of zero contact when they had their boozy parties. Meanwhile we are terrified to touch a box delivered from Amazon so wiping it down with an antibacterial wipe.
It is a fact driven book and backed up by references to real reports, documents, statistics and more. Gathered from Government Departments, Scientists, research and even the NHS. I am certainly not a conspiracy theorist, not was I at the time. I do see however on reflection things the Government did so badly that many are still reeling from today.
It’s fascinating reading and also shocking as to the extent our UK Government went to and some ridiculous choices made with the lives of people battling through the pandemic. Quite frankly the fact this book was published before the public enquiry gives it is much more strength. This isn’t an Authors thoughts of own beliefs but deep research and fact finding that is powerful reading.
I highly recommend this book if it does interest you on a political or human level as to a lot of what went on behind many closed doors most of the public will remain unaware of forever. Extremely well done. I was fascinated and shocked reading this.
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When this first came out, I thought it was a bit too soon to be writing a book about Covid, especially since this book came out while the country was still very much in the middle of things. I remember thinking at the time that it would be much better to leave an analysis like this for a couple of years, so that more skeletons had a chance to come out of the cupboard, and so that the dust would be able to clear to provide a bit of objectivity and perspective. I must admit, I’ve been pleasantly surprised, both with the thoughtfulness of the narrative, and how well researched the whole thing was. It was made particularly interesting by not just the breadth of research, but also the depth of reading. There’s some very apt psychology, history, literature, which gave the whole structure of the book a much more rounded and considered feel. I’m personally fascinated by how opinions on lockdown and mask wearing, etc became a left/right political football. It’s never made any sense to me that if you know whether someone voted leave or remain, you would also be able to predict whether or not they would agree with wearing a face mask on the bus. This book goes some way to addressing that question, and many others besides.
During this great pandemic I find it to be in the category of greatest importance not to rely on what we're being told by the shot-callers and the media but to be investigative about the overall situation, the measures taken and the reasons behind them.
This book serves as a great intro into the possible explanations how the people in the UK (and the world) inadvertently or purposefully might have been 'nudged', frightened, manipulated or coerced into fearing the covid situation, and into compliance by the government, by the media and by behavioral psychologists.
This book is amazing and eye opening to the use of fear and nudging by the government and media throughout the last 2 years. Laura has dug deep and interviewed some people who are at the heart of what has been going on. It is deeply revealing. It took me a very long time to read because I had to recover from the disbelief and be in a good place of rest and mental rest to continue. But really good and would recommend the read to everyone.
A penetrating analysis as to how the British government, mainstream media, behaviour psychologists (The Science), and medics convinced a nation to get drunk on fear porn. If you want to understand the current state of the nation, you need to read this book. Our descent into outright totalitarianism, government by decree, medical tyranny, and rule through psychological manipulation has been truly chilling to witness.
The callousness displayed to those who have suffered from the "collateral damage" of the lockdowns is truly sickening. The criminals that are behind the theft of our liberties and the murder of so many people need to be brought to justice. Even if they escape justice in this life, they will have a very long and very hot eternity to think about their crimes.
My one criticism of the book is the occasional use of anonymous sources. Even if what the sources say rings true, they are still notoriously unreliable sources to use and cannot be taken seriously just because we agree with what they are saying. I do not think that they added that much to the discussion and the author would have been better simply omitting them.
Laura Dodsworth's "State of Fear" is easily a candidate for the best and/or most informative book of 2021.
Buy it to read (if you can get a copy as it's sold out multiple times since its release in May this year) and I guarantee so much of the governmental policy nonsense and outright malarkey over the last 16 months concerning the 🦇 sniffles will make sense but also, you'll understand more about why it's being done.
Biased, anecdotal evidence based on anonymous sources “deep” within obscure government bodies. The further from the pandemic we go, the more and more this kind of - everyone has been changed forever- appears more and more ridiculous.
Simply the most important book of the 2020s so far.
Instead of paying for everyone's 'n'th booster shot, the government should buy everyone a copy of this book. We would have a much more resilient and civilised society if they did.