Ontario's COVID comms need a reset
Heidi Tworek and Ian Beacock offer up four suggestions.
Recently, chief provincial health officer
Dr. David Williams angrily blamed citizens for not following Ontario's COVID-19 guidelines. “What don't you understand about our messaging?” he wondered. “The message is so clear, it's obvious.”
But it's not your fault if you can't understand Ontario's COVID-19 rules. Poor communications have been a hallmark of Ontario's response from the start. We just published a study on the public health messaging of nine democracies worldwide, and it's not your imagination: Ontario's measures have been more confusing than elsewhere.
Communications are a critical tool for any pandemic response. They're what epidemiologists call a non-pharmaceutical intervention: a measure that isn't a drug that can help control an infectious disease. Ineffective messaging, then, is a major blunder. When rules are unclear or change often, citizens break them without realizing and grow frustrated with inconsistencies.
It's clear that Ontario needs to reboot its COVID-19 communications strategy. Learning from other countries, from Senegal to South Korea, could help. Here are four immediate changes the province could make. Adopting these suggestions could save lives, restore public trust and help flatten the curve once more.
Fewer communicators. Ontarians have been hearing from too many public officials on COVID-19. A recent briefing saw the premier, health minister, chief medical officer of health, and chief coroner all trying to explain new guidelines. In major cities such as Toronto and Ottawa, mayors have also emerged as prominent voices. Places with the finest COVID-19 responses, however, such as New Zealand, have elevated a small number of communicators (usually one health official and one politician) to share scientific data and articulate civic values. This limits confusion and makes it easier to build trust. Ontario should give the podium to one or two highly effective messengers. Other officials should step back.
Be more emotional. Clear scientific information is essential, but memorizing facts and numbers won't flatten the curve. The best health communications also speak to the hearts of citizens. Senegal has used personal stories from patients and family members to clarify the stakes. In British Columbia, Dr. Bonnie Henry has repeatedly asked citizens to “be kind, be calm, be safe.” Taiwan has called physical distancing an act of love. Explicitly calling for kindness or compassion is valuable, but it also helps to have officials who can themselves express a range of emotions. New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern has used online video-streaming to empathize with the public. Ontario needs pandemic messaging with emotional intelligence.
Avoid the shame game. Ontario's communications strategy has emphasized the public shaming of COVID-19 rule-breakers, from price-gougers to park-goers. This makes the province an outlier: many other jurisdictions have stressed the good work being done by the majority of citizens and acknowledged the difficulty of following public health restrictions. B.C.'s Henry has been famously compassionate, while in South Korea, officials went out of their way to avoid stigmatizing LGBT partygoers after an outbreak at a nightclub. Shaming bad actors is satisfying but unhelpful. Especially if measures are unclear, it leads citizens to feel resentful and suspicious. And fines fall disproportionately on minority communities. Enforcement is essential, but health messaging ought to focus more on gratitude, patience and solidarity.
Choose different metaphors. From the beginning, Premier Doug Ford has favoured militaristic imagery to describe COVID-19. He has called it a war to be won. But combat metaphors rely on obedience and the naming of an often-racialized enemy. This is why they've been avoided elsewhere. South Korea has described COVID-19 as a relay race, while officials in B.C. have called it a Category 5 hurricane. Metaphors help citizens understand the problem, consider how to respond, and know what to expect. Ontario's leaders should find new imagery (sports, storms, wildfires, etc.) that avoids stigmatization and invites Ontarians to look after their neighbours, not fight enemies.
These steps cost practically nothing and could be implemented immediately. There's no time to waste in communicating more effectively about COVID-19. Ontario should start now.