UK Statistician Accuses Government COVID-19 Ads of Being ‘One-Sided’ and ‘Manipulative’
Campaigns for COVID-19, such as billboards and video messages, were intended to persuade people to stay at home.
Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, a leading British statistician, has cautioned that the government should change their approach to explaining health risks to people and avoid using fear-mongering communication messages. He criticized health advertisements run by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic while providing testimony to The Times Health Commission.
Sir David referred to ads produced in 2021 that used images of doctors, nurses, and COVID-19 patients in oxygen masks alongside captions that said things like, “Look them in the eyes, and tell them the risk isn’t real.” The campaign aimed to convince people to stay at home during government-mandated lockdowns.
Sir David described the communication campaign, adopted by Downing Street, as “one-sided [and] manipulative.” He also compared it to a warning issued by the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who in 2020 said, “Don’t kill your gran by catching coronavirus and passing it on.”
“The standard government communication is of telling you what to do, either through false reassurance or building up the fears. Both of these are deeply untrustworthy, appalling, and ineffective,” Sir David told the commission.
Despite this criticism, the Chief Executive of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Alex Whitfield, defended the advertisement and film created in her hospital, arguing that it showed the public a “very real threat to us all.”
During COVID-19 lockdowns, the British government held regular press conferences to convey official messaging around the pandemic. Then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, medical advisers, and health officials, including Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance were involved in these conferences.
Sir David criticized Mr. Johnson’s delivery of health messages but praised health officials for their ability to communicate health messages effectively.
In March 2021, Mr. Johnson addressed public concerns over the safety of COVID-19 vaccines, saying in a statement that “our vaccines are safe and effective.” Sir David, however, argued that it was a simplistic and insufficient description that didn’t address the potential risks of blood clots from the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The Times Health Commission was set up to advise on the future of health and social care in England in light of the pandemic. It’s been gathering evidence from senior doctors, scientists, business leaders, and politicians and is expected to issue a report with its conclusions in January 2024. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 Inquiry, set up to examine the UK’s response to and impact of the pandemic, continues to hold public hearings with health experts and politicians.
