COVID Mandates Were ‘One Dimensional’ and ‘Anti-Human,’ Says Medical Writer

The cover of Gabrielle Bauer's book, “Blindsight is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More.” (Brownstone Institute)

Most governments’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic was not only “singularly one dimensional,” but also “anti-human,” says Toronto health and medical writer Gabrielle Bauer, who recently wrote a book on the subject.

“I remember the very minute that lockdowns were announced, and everyone started saying ‘follow the science, the scientists, the experts’ … I thought, ‘Wait a minute, where are the economists, where are the philosophers, where are the historians … where are the mental health experts, where are the social scientists?’” Ms. Bauer told the host of EpochTV’s American Thought Leaders program, Jan Jekielek, in an interview on July 20.

Ms. Bauer, a medical journalist for 29 years, said diverse voices are just as important for managing the pandemic—contrary to the narrative that a precautionary principle should be adopted with the aim of stopping the virus that supersedes all other considerations.

“So it was that; it was singularly one dimensional—anti-human,” she said.

Questions on whether lockdowns and mandates serve society’s best interests, and whether there might be a “less drastic and destructive way” to deal with the pandemic became the driving force for Ms. Bauer to gather the works of 46 thinkers, whose views were later showcased in her book, “Blindsight is 2020: Reflections on Covid Policies from Dissident Scientists, Philosophers, Artists, and More,” which was published in 2022.

“A pandemic is not just a scientific puzzle to solve. It’s a human problem to manage,” the author said in the interview. “How do we steer the human family through this while preserving … dignity, preserving people’s abilities to earn a living, to provide for their families, to have the kind of communion they need.”

‘A State of Fear’

One chapter featured in Ms. Bauer’s book includes the work of British author Laura Dodsworth who criticized the U.K. government for choosing fear over fortitude in their public communications during the pandemic.

Ms. Dodsworth had written a book, “A State of Fear,” published in 2021, that argued her government “weaponized” fear to keep the British people in a state of compliance.

Ms. Bauer referred to Ms. Dodsworth’s discussion in the book that the government and media steered public perceptions and behaviours through “hard-hitting emotional messages” to raise the sense of threat that would lead people to follow the COVID mandates.

“And her whole questioning in the book was, is this ethically justified?” Ms. Bauer said. “Some people will say ‘yes it is’ because the goal is to try to save lives—doesn’t matter what you do. But then, there’s a lot of people like her and me and many others, as it turns out, who say ‘wait a minute, no, there are certain fundamental principles that are not okay.’”

“The end doesn’t justify the means, even if it’s a noble end,” she added. “If you think that your goal is so important, find other ways to communicate it.”

‘Mass Formation’

Ms. Bauer said one tactic used by enforcers of the prevailing narrative was “shunning,” because social rejection is feared by most people.

“I think it’s baked into our DNA, the fear of being shunned,” she said.

Labels such as “sociopath” and “eugenicist” were used against dissidents, she said. “Those were the memes they threw at you if you dared to question in even the most polite ways, what was going on. And those are thoughts stopping words that are designed to put people in their place.”

Ms. Bauer said her book devotes a chapter to the work of Mattias Desmet, a professor of clinical psychology at Ghent University in Belgium, who discussed the idea of “groupthink” and mob psychology, which he calls “mass formation.” Mr. Desmet explains mass formation as the emergence in society of a mass or crowd of people that influences others in specific ways.

“When an individual is in the grip of mass formation, they become radically blind to everything that goes against the narratives the group believes in,” Ms. Bauer wrote in her book, citing Mr. Desmet. If the hypnotic state persists, they will ‘try to destroy everyone who doesn’t go along with them, and they typically do it as if it is an ethical duty,’” she wrote.

In an interview last September, Mr. Desmet told Mr. Jekielek that he believes the world is now seeing a new form of totalitarianism, spawned in the last few decades and fostered by mass formation during the pandemic.

“What you’re dealing with now is not a communist or not fascist authoritarianism. It is the emergence, I think, of technocratic totalitarianism,” Mr. Desmet said. This new form of control will not be “led by gang leaders such as Stalin or Hitler, but by dull bureaucrats and technocrats,” added Mr. Desmet, citing the work of 20th-century political philosopher Hannah Arendt.

‘New Respect’

Ms. Bauer, who said she wasn’t very religious, said she found “a new respect” for some religious groups during the pandemic.

“I realized that they just have a different way of looking at the world,” she said, citing examples of how the ultra-orthodox Hasidim in New York and in Israel refused to comply with the mandates.

She gave another example of how a religious Jew who was interviewed in Israel said their community believes that “going to school and learning about Torah protects the kids.”

“And I just realized all these things that the secular world considers essential and non-essential—that’s just one lens,” Ms. Bauer said.

“There’s a different worldview that looks at essential and non-essential in completely different ways that are really at least as valid, if not more valid, because really what these groups were saying, was that communion learning together, those things are important even in a pandemic, and we can’t just completely toss them aside, perhaps we need to make some changes, we can talk about that. But we don’t just categorically dismiss them and tell everyone to stay home.”

Masooma Haq contributed to this report.