The Tyee has published my article: BC’s Top Doctor Wrote a Book about Fighting Viruses in 2009. Excerpt:
Soap and Water & Common Sense: The Definitive Guide to Viruses, Bacteria, Parasites, and Disease By Dr. Bonnie Henry House of Anansi, 2009.
Dr. Bonnie Henry’s news conferences have become a part of daily life in B.C. When they attend her briefings, Premier John Horgan, Health Minister Adrian Dix, and Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth fade into the background, at a safe distance from her and one another. They speak chiefly to endorse what their chief medical officer says. The contrast with Trump’s press conferences is impossible to miss.
It certainly helps that Dr. Henry can deliver alarming news in a calm tone of voice, without relying on technical jargon; we pay attention, we absorb the news, but we don’t freak out. Treated like adults, we respond like adults.
Those same communication skills are evident throughout her 2009 book Soap and Water & Common Sense, written years before she became B.C.’s provincial health officer. The book is now available with a new introduction, written in March, and the content itself is still very timely: while our healthcare system is fighting COVID-19, other diseases are going to exploit their opportunity.
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