Government COVID-19 Ads Were ‘One-Sided’ and ‘Manipulative’: UK Statistician

The government should change its way of explaining health risks to people and stay clear of using fear-mongering communication messages, a leading British statistician has warned. Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter was giving evidence to The Times Health Commission, when he criticised health adverts run by the government during the COVID-19 pandemic. The chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, 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.”...