Government and corporate deception

A Narrative Review of the COVID-19 Infodemic and Censorship in Healthcare

LIESTER, MITCHELL; Sohaib Ashraf; Patricia Callisperis; Hector Carvallo; Shankara Chetty; Robert Enzenauer; Carlos FrancoParedes; Raul Pineda; Panagis Polykretis; Rachel Wilkenson; and Peter McCullough. 2025. "A Narrative Review of the COVID19 Infodemic and Censorship in Healthcare." Secrecy and Society 3(2). DOI23776188.1087

Ideological and financial motivations have undermined science for decades.

Organizations and governments used misinformation, disinformation, censorship, and secrecy to manage the COVID-19 pandemic.

Information can be distorted and shaped by corporations and governments for financial gain or ideological purposes.

Various rationales for employing censorship and secrecy during the COVID-19 pandemic are examined including,

how organizations and governments create confusion about the risks associated with their products,

and blame avoidance to shift responsibility and to avoid accountability for their actions.

Methods of censorship employed during the COVID-19 pandemic are reviewed

Data sources

Scientific papers, government documents, mass media articles, books, and personal accounts of physicians and scientists.

Use of censorship and secrecy created a challenge for scientists, physicians, politicians, and the general public in trying to understand COVID- related topics.

Defeating the Merchants of Doubt

Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. 2010. Nature 465 (7299): 686-87.

Tactics of doubt

Corporations engage in deliberate strategies to create doubt about scientific findings.

(the tobacco industry, cast doubt on the health risks of smoking) despite overwhelming evidence of the dangers of smoking.

Use of so-called “experts”

Corporations hire or fund scientists to challenge or undermine scientific findings.

Support the corporate narrative

Media manipulation

By introducing fringe or discredited perspectives, corporations ensure that media coverage gives disproportionate weight to their desired narrative

'In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.'

By creating doubt and confusion, corporations manipulate public perception for their own financial gain.

William R. Freudenburg

Risk and Recreancy

Privileged Access, Privileged Accounts

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Blame avoidance

Shifting of responsibility / accountability for actions that result in adverse social consequences.

Disproportionate attribution of blame

When corporations manipulate public narratives to redirect blame toward others

Normalization of deviance

Over time, risky practices become normalized,

reducing the likelihood that problems will be recognized as serious threats

Privileged access to information

By controlling access to critical information,

corporations and governments make it difficult for the public or regulatory bodies to fully understand the risks or consequences of their actions or products.

By controlling the flow of information, corporations diffuse or delay blame

Misdirection

Divert public attention away from their actions,

they focus attention on smaller, less critical issues,

or shift the narrative away from their culpability to natural causes

Regulatory capture

Is another way corporations avoid accountability