Covid-19 - The Authoritarian Social Hygiene Regime Is Illiberal & A Global Threat To Civil Liberties

Dr. Niall McCrae is a senior mental health lecturer at King's College London and co-author of "Year of the Bat: Globalisation, China & the Coronavirus". Dr. McCrae argues that the Covid-19 pandemic has given rise to an illiberal and authoritarian global social hygiene regime. To quote: "I remember in January watching news clips from Wuhan in China, where the coronavirus outbreak began. At a police road block on a dual carriageway, a man on his way to work wound his window down and his forehead temperature was taken. He was ordered out of the vehicle, to be immediately taken into quarantine. He protested, and was beaten to the ground and pummelled by thuggish police. "Such abuse of human rights couldn’t happen in the West, could it? Well, look at the state of Victoria in Australia. The governor, nicknamed Kim Jong Dan, has imposed a severe lockdown with ruthless policing. A man heavily fined for taking out his rubbish without a mask. A young woman throttled by a male officer for the same offence. A pregnant woman arrested at home in front of her children for incitement. Inciting what? Encouraging Facebook friends to attend a freedom protest. "A long-running cartoon in the satirical Viz comic is the "Bottom Inspectors". The hygiene Gestapo who check you’ve wiped yourself properly. In the latest edition they look even more sinister, with their Covid-19 visors. Who would have believed we’d be living this dystopia. "This Covid regime is for controlling us, not the virus. But why are so many people in favour of this denial of basic liberties? This is about social class and morality. The supposedly liberal, progressive establishment is imposing its authority on the "great unwashed" You need to be told to wash your hands, to keep your distance, and to muzzle yourselves. "Of course mask-wearing isn’t based on science. It’s not much more effective than a string vest to stop mosquito bites, but masks have become a moral fault line. Sophisticated middle-class people wear them as a means of virtue-signalling. The w