The content already seems quite dated but this recent article is not bad (and open access) on the subject of Terror Management Theory and Coroni. Draws on the theories of Becker as updated in the book The Worm At The Core.
Pyszczynski, T. et al. (2021) ‘Terror Management Theory and the COVID-19 Pandemic’, Journal of Humanistic Psychology , 61(2), pp. 173–189. Online at
Lost me at the first para. I fear, K, when they speak of “the enormous death toll of the virus”. Oh yeah? Which planet would that be? Planet Tenuredivory, I daresay. 
For genuine big, regular death-tolls from easily treatable disease, look rather at TB, and many other massively-ignored chronic afflictions, which never produce a peep of concern from we of the Pampered Twenty Percent.
I agree but plowed on through anyway. The ground covered is not dissimilar in parts to the points made by the hypnotist but balanced with a great deal of mealy-mouthed academicese and ‘more research needed’ fence sitting.
There’s a pretty good piece in TCW today, apologies if already posted, that lists ‘seven enablers’ for lockdown policies and the abject surrender of academia is fourth on the list.
The fourth enabler has been the buying-off of academics. The corporate university has turned former professional sceptics and intellectual rabble rousers into automata and shills for the funding classes. The research-publishing-funding cycle drives all academic behaviour now. We simply cannot expect leadership, questioning and resistance to the State…
Yes its a very well argued piece except for the familiar old righty-tighty bleat about elfnsafety which constitutes Paul Collits’ 3rd. enabler. What he reasonably objects to is in fact the outcome of the work of lawyers and insurance companies’ influence on the thinking of the generally third-rate UK management class. As a retired ‘shop floor’ worker myself I well understand the difference between getting jobs done at all costs and taking reasonable precautions. How I despise that comfortable middle class sneering!