Four Weeks That Shaped a Pandemic

BE KIND, BE CALM, BE SAFE is the intimate, behind-the-scenes story of the four key weeks during which BC's Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr Bonnie Henry, “flattened the curve” through a consistent, calm, empathetic, science-based and well-articulated public health strategy.

The weeks spanning March 11 to April 13 represented a turning point for the pandemic – for British Columbia, for Canada, for the world. During this time, Dr Henry took critical, and personally agonizing, steps to change the course of the outbreak in the area under her control. The public train of events is now well-known; what has not yet been documented is the rich background as well as the private deliberation that led to the public decisions and actions. Coincidentally, Dr Henry's sister, Lynn Henry, arrived for a long-planned visit on March 12. For the four ensuing weeks, Lynn had a rare glimpse behind the scenes of the personal and political whirlwind of this time, with its moments of agony and gravity as well as its occasional episodes of levity and grace.

BE KIND, BE CALM, BE SAFE will combine Lynn's observations and knowledge of Bonnie's personal and professional background with Bonnie's recollections of how and why decisions were made, to tell in a vivid way the fully-rounded dramatic tale of these four weeks that made all the difference to millions of people. It will be a short, sharply focussed book, composed in two clear, articulate voices, and divided into 4 parts—one for each week – plus a prologue/intro and epilogue/afterword. It will also, tangentially and in a more subtle way, be the story of two sisters, a year apart in age, whose strong connection, forged during a peripatetic childhood, continues to inform and influence both of their lives and thinking.

As the larger recognition and fame that has accrued to Dr Henry demonstrates, this is not just a local story; it is very much a larger, more universal story about how we make decisions (and who makes them) in times of great upheaval or danger, and under great duress; about the nuances of communication, leadership and public trust; about the balance between politics and policy; and about, at heart, what and who we value, as individuals and a society. It is also about a deceptively simple slogan, and what it truly means (and requires from all of us) to “be calm, be kind, be safe.”

Dr Bonnie Henry, who has been called “one of the most effective public health figures in the world” by The New York Times, “a calming voice in a sea of coronavirus madness” by The Globe and Mail health reporter Andre Picard, and “our hero” in the National Post, brought a wealth of world-wide public health experience to her current role when she was appointed two years ago. Her daily press briefings, broadcast across various media, beaome must-watch events for all BC residents – and for hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens across Canada looking for guidance on an unprecedented, confusing and rapidly changing health emergency that has quickly spread to all aspects of our lives -- social, economic, cultural, deeply personal. She lives in Victoria.

Lynn Henry is the Publishing Director at Knopf Canada, a distinguished literary imprint within Penguin Random House Canada, where she oversees the Knopf Canada list as well as editing her own select titles. Her many distinguished authors include Madeleine Thien, whose novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction, the Bailey's Prize for Women's Fiction, and the Folio Prize; Miriam Toews, whose novel Women Talking was one of the bestselling fiction books of 2018; and many other young literary stars in the making and Canadian and international writers of note. She lives in Toronto.