Why public health communications are an utter disaster

In today’s Big Story podcast, we are in the home stretch of this pandemic, even if you wouldn’t know it from anything Canadian officials tell you. Vaccines work, and hundreds of thousands of Canadians are getting theirs every day. We can look to the United Kingdom right now to see what happens when enough people get their shots. We know a lot more than we ever have about what’s safe and what’s not, how to protect ourselves and still find activities worth doing.

So why don’t communications from public health reflect that? Why can’t politicians and doctors give us hope, or at least a few carrots mixed in with the constant sticks? Do they not trust us with optimism? Worry we’ll start breaking the rules early? Or is treating Canadians like obedient robots doing more harm than good?

GUEST: Matt Gurney, columnist with TVO and the National Post

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