Science will liberate us from fear, if we allow it

At last, I feel I can congratulate the Prime Minister on his handling of the pandemic as we face this new variant. Boris Johnson reassured the public on Friday that “we should trust in our vaccines” and that “so far we have no evidence to suggest our vaccines will be less effective in protecting people against severe illness and hospitalisation”.

The data show that vaccines continue to break the link from cases to deaths and hospitalisations. The PM is right to focus the public’s mind on this. He was also right to point out that “there is no evidence of increased cases translating into unmanageable pressures on the NHS”. That is why the Government is right to open up while continuing the vaccination programme.

We have learnt so much in this pandemic about the disease and what works and what does not. But the latest lesson is from a member of the Government’s SPI-B panel on behavioural psychology, who said in an interview: “Clearly, using fear as a means of control is not ethical. Using fear smacks of totalitarianism. It’s not an ethical stance for any government.”

This must be a turning point for this Government and every MP. Now is the moment to stop the official campaign of fear by the state, bolstered by the media, with all that entails for the mental health and prospects of the public. MPs have a duty to create a society worth living in. But this moment must also be a turning point for scientists. Serious scientists have long known – or should have – that science and politics can create a fearful admixture. Exploring these issues after the last great collapse of liberal values, that great philosopher of science Karl Popper wrote in The Open Society and Its Enemies, “the whole secret of scientific method is a readiness to learn from mistakes”.

While the state has a proud and hubristic spirit that cannot endure to be questioned or to confess error, it is essential to scientific progress that it is made by conjecture and refutation, that is, trial and error. Without a readiness to learn from mistakes, science surely collapses into the myths and taboos of the pre-enlightenment.

Without courage, reflection and a willingness to engage rationally in critical discussion, our civilisation will leap backwards into the dark.

Science is liberating us from fear. Though liberty died in the course of this pandemic, it appears she is about to rise again. Now we must look ahead to June 21 as the date by which freedom truly means freedom. Being social is key to being well, so Britain must be reunited, and we must start healing the broken bonds of the last year.

Now is the time for us to unleash Britain’s true potential, to celebrate having had one of the fastest vaccination rollouts in the world, for Britain to play its part in vaccinating the world’s vulnerable, and for us to look ahead to a completely free and normal life after lockdown.