Down the Memory Hole

A blog covering the techniques used to manipulate the public into ignoring the health threat posed by an ongoing pandemic.

The last four years of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have been a confusing time for many. Words change their meaning all the time, the science keeps on being reinterpreted, the surprises just keep on coming. We’re told that this is because the virus keeps on evolving unpredictably, but also that this is to be expected. We’re told that we should take precautions, but also that there is no cause for concern. We’re told that only the vulnerable need worry, but also that certain risks apply to everyone. We’re told that our immunity has made us more resilient to the virus, but also that our immunity was severely compromised by the three months we spent at home in 2020. If you’re paying close attention, you can be forgiven for thinking that none of it makes any sense.

While it’s undoubtedly true that the virus keeps evolving, the messaging around the pandemic has evolved in ways that are completely unmoored from the reality of the situation. The public health strategy for the current pandemic has devolved at this point into a public relations strategy. A range of different techniques have been employed by public health bodies worldwide, working closely with media outlets, to obfuscate the realities of the current situation. We will dive into these approaches in this blog, giving names to them and showing how they have been employed to shift public perceptions of risk.

Our goal with this blog is to expose the techniques and help the reader understand how they are used to manipulate public opinion. Sunlight, as they say, is the best disinfectant, and this blog hopes to throw some light on the practices that have been used to hinder the development of an effective public health response to COVID. In doing so, we will also hopefully provide COVID-cautious folks with some ammunition for their discussions with friends and family.