Dr. Bonnie Henry: (virtual) holder of hands for the Canadian public
April 2, 2020 3:35 PM   Subscribe

[I]n the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Bonnie Henry, British Columbia’s soft-spoken provincial health officer, has become beloved in households across the country. Each day as she addresses the province at 3 p.m. local with the latest data and policy plan – later beamed across the nation in evening broadcasts – she’s become a holder of hands for the Canadian public. The Dr. Bonnie Henry Fan Club, a fan-curated list of kind words and links about Dr. Henry. "Dear Dr. Bonnie," a tribute song by two Vancouver fans, set to the tune of Hamilton's "Dear Theodosia." Juno Award-winning jazz musician Phil Dwyer's "The Ballad of Bonnie Henry."

The Globe and Mail: Last Friday, British Columbia Provincial Health Officer Bonnie Henry and Health Minister Adrian Dix gave a master class in treating the public like adults. It was a model for any government dealing with a crisis.

Meet the man behind the Dr. Bonnie Henry fan club

Vancouver Food Bank fundraiser t-shirts adorned with Dr. Henry's face (sold out).
posted by hurdy gurdy girl (17 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'm a British Columbian. She's definitely proving up to it. So thanks for this post.
posted by philip-random at 3:49 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]






Oh, I just learned that the twitter version has a bonus Nigel Howard inset. I was missing him!
posted by bethnull at 4:33 PM on April 2, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm from BC. It's difficult to overstate how comforting it is to have competent, humane leadership in this crisis.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:36 PM on April 2, 2020 [9 favorites]


Same, justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow. The other day I was having an anxiety attack because I had consumed too much international coronavirus news and was kind of spiralling. Then I listened to Dr. Henry and she was so calm and encouraging (while still being honest about how firm about the need to social distance and follow the government's directions). I felt so much better.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 5:59 PM on April 2, 2020


When Bonnie Henry found out she had a twitter fan club over her leadership as the crisis grew, she cried. She's in an incredibly hard position, and when she found out that she was admired, she wasn't ready for that because all she'd been working on was doing her job as best she can, at whatever cost she had to pay. It hadn't entered her mind, it seemed, that she might be recognized as doing her job really well.

She's the epitome of that saying that the people you want to lead are the people who have to lead, not those who want to lead.
posted by fatbird at 10:45 PM on April 2, 2020 [4 favorites]


I too am a B.C.'er and am proud that science and logic are on our side. My biggest concern about this whole situation is that fear will run rampant and irreparably damage society. Frankly I'm more concerned about that than the actual virus. Dr. Bonnie makes me realize that real hope comes from facts and not promises.
posted by Zedcaster at 10:54 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


Dr. Bonnie Henry deserves the Order of Canada after this is all over.

She has done a truly wonderful job. Also the BC government deserves a lot of credit for supporting her, and an overall competent response almost devoid of politicking. I've never been more proud of our province, and how everyone stepped up.
posted by fruit sandwich at 11:17 PM on April 2, 2020 [3 favorites]


like many here at Metafilter (and in British Columbia for that matter), I've been surprised at how many of my friends are proving to be epidemiology experts. One things some of these experts (many of whom are proving critical of Bonnie Henry) can't shut up about is testing -- why we aren't doing way more of it, why aren't we testing them in particular ... and so on.

Anyway, a local Victoria journalist named Ross Crockford has done some digging and here's what he's found. Nothing particularly earthshaking. Just relevant reportage. For instance:

Strategy aside, the province is also likely limiting tests to conserve its supplies for the peak of the crisis. (FOCUS asked the Ministry of Health what’s holding up wider-scale testing, but the Ministry hasn’t replied.) Governments around the world are in a rush — and sometimes bidding wars — for the nasal swabs and chemical reagents used in test kits, and for PPE (personal protective equipment) such as gowns and masks, which if used for testing would take them away from hospital wards. It’s true that some countries like South Korea and the United Arab Emirates have been able to conduct large-scale testing, but that’s because they’ve been stockpiling equipment and chemicals ever since the MERS coronavirus hit them in 2015.
posted by philip-random at 8:31 AM on April 3, 2020 [3 favorites]


Ontario's Peter Donnelly, though massively competent, is not entirely reassuring. He's currently taking questions after announcing some fairly grim projections.
posted by scruss at 10:19 AM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


I've been impressed with Dr. Deena Hinshaw in Alberta, and I stream her briefing every day at 4:00.

Of course I can't bring up Dr. Hinshaw without mentioning the periodic table dress.

Such a contrast with our piece of shit health minister.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:23 PM on April 3, 2020 [6 favorites]


OMG that dress is from the shop where I get most of my clothes! I tried to get one when I first saw them but they were sold out....
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:30 PM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


OMG that dress is from the shop where I get most of my clothes! I tried to get one when I first saw them but they were sold out....

The periodic table dress was back in production, thanks to Dr. Hinshaw. But they're out of fabric, so there's a wait list.

I haven's seen Dr. Henry's pressers, so I have no evidence, but I'm pretty sure Dr. Hinshaw is the best.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 2:43 PM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


I have to say, Health Minister Adrian Dix has also risen to the occasion in an admirable way. And kudos to the Premier for letting Henry and Dix front the response for the most part.
posted by Rumple at 3:23 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]


Also, this is what "flattening the curve" looks like. Especially note the active cases (orange) and new cases (yellow) lines: remarkably stable over the past two weeks when without behavioural modification one would expect these to be rising exponentionally. BC has done an above-average amount of testing overall, similar in rate to Italy or Washington State, for example and four times higher than the UK.
posted by Rumple at 3:30 PM on April 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


The main complaints I've heard about Bonnie Henry are (all moot) varieties of a) withholding geographical specifics early on; b) not doing anything faster early on; c) subtle spin and reframing of lack of testing capacity into doing intelligent "focused" testing, and so forth. Putting together all the naysayers' talking points, what's probably going on is they feel patronized by this perceived spin that is used to narratively rewrite what happened in the last 3 months in BC. From a social criticism perspective, government officials are indeed very good at spin and narrative; it's their job.

Personally I don't think she's incompetent like some of the complaints cast her to be; but I also think it's pathological and anti-science to be fawning over what is essentially a public official role. Like I understand it if people need it for morale reasons, but my observation is basically there are two camps (the fans and the not-fans, and isn't that indicative of capitalist dialectic) there is a third way which is to be respectful and yet critical of someone in a position of power. The government is not your friend, but it is not your enemy either, or some half-true aphorism like that.
posted by polymodus at 4:03 PM on April 3, 2020 [2 favorites]


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