COVID-19 Policies Undermined Trust in Key Institutions

A book review of CANARY in a COVID WORLD

CANARY in a COVID WORLD: How Propaganda and Censorship Changed our (my) World, edited by C. H. Klotz. Canary House Publishing, 2023.

This book is a compilation of 34 essays covering the many afflictions freed by the policy response to COVID-19. The response was inconsistent, contradictory, unscientific, partisan, coercive, manipulative, and occasionally malicious. Many damaging consequences of these responses are not health-related and will linger long into the future. This faulty policy response encouraged the corruption of key human activities that are fundamental to the health of contemporary society. Such corruption was most palpable in science, medicine, journalism, and government.

 The corruption in these fields had a damaging effect on public trust in civil and government institutions, and people’s trust in each other. Trust holds healthy human relations together and is a crucial ingredient for a free society. Rodney Palmer, a former Canadian journalist, defines it in Essay 17 of…