PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Moral panics are moments of intense and widespread public concern about a specific group, whose behaviour is deemed a moral threat to the collective. We examined public health guidelines in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canadian newspaper editorials, columns and letters to the editor, to evaluate how perceived threats to public interests were expressed and amplified through claims-making processes. Normalization of infection control behaviours has led to a moral panic about lack of compliance with preventive measures, which is expressed in opinion discourse. Following public health guidelines was construed as a moral imperative and a civic duty, while those who failed to comply with these guidelines were stigmatized, shamed as \"covidiots,\" and discursively constructed as a threat to public health and moral order. Unlike other moral panics in which there is social consensus about what needs to be done, Canadian commentators presented a variety of possible solutions, opening a debate around infection surveillance, privacy, trust, and punishment. Public health communication messaging needs to be clear, to both facilitate compliance and provide the material conditions necessary to promote infection prevention behaviour, and reduce the stigmatization of certain groups and hostile reactions towards them.
摘要：
道德恐慌是公众对特定群体的强烈和广泛关注的时刻，他们的行为被认为是对集体的道德威胁。我们在加拿大报纸社论中检查了COVID-19大流行的头几个月的公共卫生指南，给编辑的专栏和信件，评估如何通过索赔过程表达和放大对公共利益的感知威胁。感染控制行为的正常化导致了对缺乏预防措施的道德恐慌，这是在意见话语中表达的。遵循公共卫生准则被解释为道德要求和公民义务，虽然那些不遵守这些准则的人受到了污名化，羞愧为“covidiots，“并被话语地构造为对公共卫生和道德秩序的威胁。与其他道德恐慌不同，社会对需要做什么达成共识，加拿大评论员提出了各种可能的解决方案，围绕感染监测展开辩论，隐私,信任,和惩罚。公共卫生沟通信息需要明确，既促进依从性，又提供促进感染预防行为所需的物质条件，减少某些群体的污名化和对他们的敌对反应。
