Clodagh Finn: Let’s reframe how we think and talk about illness

The stigma that sometimes goes with mental and physical illness can be as harmful as the symptoms themselves, writes Clodagh Finn

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, who is infected with Covid-19, wears a protective face mask as he waves to supporters during a Brazilian flag retreat ceremony outside his official residence Alvorada Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil. The virus has no respect for high office.

During the earliest days of the pandemic, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a televised address to tell the French nation that it was at war against an invisible enemy. He used the phrase several times to rally the nation into action.

Or inaction, as it turned out because his speech marked the beginning of lockdown.