As sick as we all are of hearing about the “new normal”, we cannot avoid dealing with the implications of COVID-19 in our daily lives, and in public policy. The pandemic provides us with an interesting case study to explore some of the theories and concepts we have studied in action. How has evidence-based policy fared during the pandemic? How has the government made use of policy narratives to convince people to adopt public health measures? Why did Canada and the US take such radically different approaches to dealing with the disease? This week we will look at the politics of rona.