1/ No doubt OST did a 180. Note also this:

"What was really very important in each jurisdiction ... was to communicate the seriousness of this, so that people did stay at home. And there’s different ways to do that."

Exaggerating the threat to young people sure is one way.

https://twitter.com/rubiconcapital_/status/1385015930003116034

2/ This is what @fordnation said last week (at 5:37)

'What we need now is for everyone to follow these rules. These variants are infecting and killing younger people every day.

Rather than give information, we try get people to comply by exaggerating. https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1383151359340511235

3/ @fordnation could have quantified exactly how much higher is the threat to young people now (if it even is higher). He didn't. Because whatever graph he could have put together, it would have still shown that the age-stratification of the risk is still very steep.

4/ And hence "just giving information" strategy would not not have induced young people to comply with the restrictions. Vaguely implying a graver danger with "variants are infecting and killing younger people every day" was considered more effective.

5/ But misleading or lying is a terrible, very costly strategy for many reasons. Among them is the fact that it's very hard to undo exaggerated fear, and that at, as the public inevitably catches on, it reduces trust in public health.

6/ This reduced trust is hugely costly as trust is essential to effective public health. Much of public health relies on giving information which is only effective if the public trusts this information. Reduced trust makes future public health initiatives less effective.

7/ Misleading the public is also very costly on a personal level to many people. The extremely sad story about the Toronto Star reporter's fear from yesterday is a very stark illustration of this. (see @bergerbell feed for coverage of it).

8/ The irony, if you will, of exaggerating the threat to young people now in Ontario, is that is that the U.S. is now doing what it can to do the exact reverse. They're desperately trying to undo a year's worth of exaggeration of the threat to young people.

9/ One example of this attempt to undo exaggerated, media-driven, fear is that this study from December seems to get more and more coverage in the press every day now. The coverage started in March, 3 months later, when U.S. media was ready to move on. https://www.brookings.edu/research/how-misinformation-is-distorting-covid-policies-and-behaviors/

Finally/ I already discussed some of this coverage here so won't repeat it. https://twitter.com/MikkoPackalen/status/1383528196771966979