Thread by @frozen

I want to talk about memory and mythmaking. In early March 2020, Canada's covid response was lagging. Borders weren't closed, events weren't cancelled, and the public was mostly trying to ignore the virus. Then one day, a health official named Dr. Bonnie Henry cried on live TV.

It's not an overstatement to say that this tearful moment made Henry a national and international celebrity. Designer shoes were made, songs written, and catchphrases created. A couple of months later, the NYT would label her "The Top Doctor Who Aced the Coronavirus Test."

The illusion of competence was so total, the mythmaking in the media so deftly done, that within a few short months Henry was already seen as something of an oracle: A calm, authoritative voice broadcasting truths in the face of uncertainty.

But no matter how durable the illusion, it didn't reflect reality.

I often get asked, as the pandemic failures mount, what happened to Dr. Henry? And my answer is usually: Nothing at all; this was always who she was.

Dr. Henry botched her role in the SARS pandemic and made many of the same mistakes against SARS2. She denied the primacy of airborne transmission, failed to prohibit large gatherings early (dental conference, anyone?), and failed to heed the precautionary principle generally.

But her star in the media did not dim even as policy failures mounted. She was and is treated more like conquering war hero than a public servant—mistakes are papered over and medals awarded as if the war has been won. Except our pandemic war wasn't won so much as labeled over.

The failure to deconstruct this pandemic's enduring myths continues to prolong it. Today, Dr. Henry still believes this virus doesn't spread like smoke. She still believes inferior masks are about as good as N95s. She still insists schools are safe.

And as in March 2020, Dr. Henry continues to insist that safety recommendations are to be preferred over safety requirements. Ignoring human nature and history, she prefers voluntary kindness to mild legal constraints, even when kindness results in more lives avoidably lost.

On March 7, 2020, Dr. Henry's display of emotions wasn't a compassionate foreshadowing of the suffering to come, but rather a key that locked in policy mistakes by making Henry's judgment unreviewable by the press and public.

Ultimately, these early pandemic myths have proven to be almost as intractable as our viral opponent, seeping into our minds and entangling us like smoke spreading across a poorly ventilated room.