act.“We are in a crisis. That is how I can describe it. It is scary and we need to work together,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said earlier in January after seeing the latest modelling for Ontario.A senior public health official followed up: “We don’t want people dying, we don’t want ICUs overwhelmed, we don’t want morgues overrun.”These words are recent and clear, but neither Ontario nor Canada is unique in its use of fear-infused messaging over the course of the COVID crisis.Early in the pandemic (and occasionally since then), that was probably necessary.
People needed to realize that we were well outside the realm of “normal,” and that they were being asked for something quite extraordinary.Fear makes us vigilant; it makes us sit up and.