BLINDSIGHT is 2020

Perspectives on Covid policies from dissident scientists, philosophers, artists, and more

Contributed to Popular Rationalism by Gabrielle Bauer

—Me: Covid is a real threat, but lockdowns place an unfair burden on the young and the poor.

—Random Internet Stranger: You want people to die? Let me guess, you’re a Trump voter and you think the earth is flat.

—Me: It’s cruel and unnecessary to deprive people of saying goodbye to their loved ones.

—Random Internet Stranger: Go lick a pole and catch the virus.

Was it me, or had the world gone insane?

In the early months of the pandemic, you couldn’t say a word against the Covid policies without being branded a Covid denier, selfish idiot, troglodyte, or worse. And if you were 63 years old, as I was when the pandemic hit, it was simply assumed that you would cheer for policies that put immediate safety first. But I wasn’t cheering, not even on the day the first lockdowns were announced. Nothing about the policies seemed proportionate or humane.

Stay home, save lives. We’re all in this together. Don’t be a Covidiot. Keep your social distance. The old normal is gone. It all felt alien and graceless and “off” to me, though I couldn’t yet put my finger on why. In an effort to get into the spirit of things, I slapped a “stay home, save lives” banner on my Facebook page, right under my cover photo. A few hours later I took it down, unable to pretend my heart was in this.

More than anything, I chafed at the new “Covid culture” that sprang up around the restrictions: the shaming, the snitching, the intolerance of dissent. The willingness—almost eagerness, it sometimes seemed—to jettison everything meaningful about life in a bid to make the world (possibly) a little safer.

As #staythefuckhome slipped into a disquieting new normal, my concerns about the lockdowns intensified, especially when they upended my young-adult children’s lives and pushed a friend off the sobriety wagon. Another friend missed her window of opportunity to get fertility treatment. People said it was all part of the social contract, what we had to do to protect each other. But if we understand the social contract to include engaging with society, the new rules were also breaking the contract in profound ways.

When the opportunity to write a book about the pandemic came along, I couldn’t pass it up. As a medical writer I knew that such a book could put my career at risk, but writing the book seemed more important than cobbling together yet another article about antioxidants or arthritis medications. Called Blindsight Is 2020, the book was recently published in English by the Brownstone Institute and in Spanish by Mandala Ediciones. I’m honored to share a few details about it with this community.

What it’s about

The book showcases 46 scientists, ethicists, writers, and other thinkers who reflect on the societal harms of the Covid-19 lockdowns and mandates. A blend of reported journalism, polemic, and personal storytelling, the book explores the cultural forces that led the world to lock down, devalue civil rights, and lock out dissenting perspectives. Key themes include the abuse of the precautionary principle, the dangers of top-down collectivism and government overreach, and the role of personal freedom and civil liberties in a pandemic.

The book takes the position—shared by many scientists, as it turns out—that a pandemic is not just a scientific problem, but a human one. “The novel coronavirus response is being driven too much by the epidemiology,” Mark Woolhouse states in his book The Year The World Went Mad. A professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and one of the people I feature in the book, Woolhouse shares my dismay at the curious and conspicuous dismissal of the mental health, human rights, and economic perspectives on the pandemic. “We epidemiologists were repeatedly told it was someone else’s job” to worry about these things, he writes. But “whose? Nothing was ever made public.”

Managing a pandemic is not just about containing a virus, but about steering the human family through a massive societal upheaval. An upheaval that threatens not just lives, but livelihoods. Not just lung health, but mental health. Not just heartbeats but hopes and dreams. It’s about striking a balance between collective action and individual agency. The thought leaders featured in the book address these tensions head-on.

Embracing reality

The dominant Covid narrative was one of fear and aggression. It positioned the virus as the enemy in a planetary war—an enemy we must fight to the bitter end, costs are damned. But as it became clear that we were waging an unwinnable war, a second story began gaining momentum. This story cast Covid as a guest that, while not exactly welcome, was here to stay, so we needed to find a way to coexist with it without destroying our social fabric.

My book embraces the second story: attempting to eliminate all risks from Covid is a fool’s errand and carries too high a cost. The thought leaders featured in the book explain why.

While they come from all points along the political spectrum, they share a passion for freedom and human rights. None of them “deny” the virus; they simply understand that mitigation strategies will not succeed unless they respect biological reality, civil liberties, and human nature.

As an essayist and memoirist, I also enjoy weaving some personal anecdotes into the mix. From therapy with a Zoom shrink to a trip to lockdown-free Sweden, I recount several personal experiences that sprang from my despair about the Covid policies.

To those who have shared my despair, I hope the thought leaders featured in the book speak to you as they spoke to me. There’s nothing more validating than learning that some rather brilliant people share your misgivings. But I’ve also written the book to help people who supported the Covid measures understand why some of us despaired at the policies they cheered on. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, the book will introduce you to a cast of free-spirited and courageous characters. If their insights leave you with some food for thought, I’ll call it a win.

BLINDSIGHT IS 2020 currently available on Amazon and LuLu as a printed edition or in e-reader format. Amazon reviews are gratefully appreciated.

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About the author: Gabrielle Bauer is a Toronto health and medical writer who has won six national awards for her magazine journalism. Her books include Tokyo, My Everest, co-winner of the Canada Japan Book Prize, and Waltzing The Tango, a finalist for the Edna Staebler Creative Nonfiction Award.