There have been too many victims of Covid-19. People for whom coronavirus was the primary cause of death. Many others whose death was accelerated or whose recovery from other diseases was cancelled through catching Covid.
Truth has been a victim too. Conspiracy theorists and populists have been promoting a distorted review of reality. Uncertainty, crisis and threat have always been fertile grounds for conspiracy theories. But has never been so important to get the truth right.
That is why I am angry at fake news now spreading around Ludlow. A “truthpaper” is currently been pushed through doors in Ludlow. Truth? Not in my book.
The coronavirus epidemic has been a killer. Two and a half million people have died after being infected with Covid across the world. In the UK, 120,000 people.
There has been wide spectrum of debate on how we should have dealt with the pandemic. That debate is the legitimate way that science and the political process responds to any threat or crisis.
But there has been a smaller but not insignificant challenge from the conspiracy theorists. Over the last couple of weeks “The Light” has been pushed through letterboxes in some areas of the town. Styling itself as “A Truthpaper” it adopts an evangelical religious air. It is professionally produced and it’s hard to fault the editing and design or paper quality. Independently funded, it boasts a distribution of 125,000.
But the quality of its editorial content, design and production cannot for moment disguise the danger of its content.
The front page headline screams “Covid Shots Kill and Injure Hundreds”.
If we take this one article at face value, and I don’t, then hundreds have died after being vaccinated. But when the article was written in January up to 100 million people across the world had had their first vaccination. If vaccinated people have been dying in any significant numbers after vaccination it would be on every frontpage of every newspaper in this country. SAGE would be less than sage about it.
The human mind has an innate ability to link this bit of information with that bit of information, even if there is no scientific basis for that connection. That, along with an ingrained distrust for “the system” is the motor for conspiracy theories. And conspiracy theories are the life and blood of The Light.
This fake newspaper continues with headlines such as “From Science to Dogma” and “The Covadian Totalitarian Cult” and “Murder of The Innocent”. And then it betrays its roots with attacks on GM crops, 5G, smart technologies and the BBC as the “official mouthpiece for fascist nutters”.
I am not arguing that fake newspapers like this should be banned. But I am warning that they are dangerous. In Ludlow, they will not sway the majority opinion but they can undermine some people’s confidence in the local, national and international efforts to bring Covid-19 under control.
We have space in our society for alternative opinions and for challenges to the establishment view. But the challenges need to be rationale, not untruths pedalled by The Truth.
We live in a mostly “free” country which generations have fought for, thus we accept free speech. However surely this relates to people’s own lives and should not be a right to make unsolicited interventions into the lives of others. The “newsletters” refered to appear to me to be Jahova’s or Scientology flyers, which to me is annoying as phonecalls suggesting that I’ve had an accident in the car and I should make a claim… How can we stop this without stifling free speech? I don’t know. But my jab is on Saturday, bring it on!
I entirely agree, Andy. Where is it coming from? Who pays for it publication? Although it’s obviously all nonsense, there are those who will accept soem of what it says, simply because it looks like a newspaper. I think I’ll do dome digging .
Just found this: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/27/truthpaper-the-anti-lockdown-newspaper-bypassing-online-fact-checkers