COVID-19 Messaging Has a Narrative Problem — And There’s A Simple Fix

There is a reason the markets continue their roller coaster ride, with dramatic drops and rises. The messaging coming out of the White House is committing a pretty basic screenwriting error that has the audience (the U.S. public and investors) confused and lost.

Yes, a screenwriting error — the kind of error that many movies in fact make. And if the White House could just look at their story structure and make a simple change, the audience would be put at ease.

So, what is this error? It’s simple. The COVID-19 story right now is like a movie where the main character has no goal. And when the audience doesn’t know what the goal is, they get bored. They check out. They lose patience.

What the COVID-19 story needs is the same thing nearly all good stories need: a specific, external, achievable goal. In Avengers: Endgame, the specific, external, achievable goal is going back in time to collect the Infinity Stones and then undoing what Thanos did. Once we know this goal, the audience knows where the movie is going. They can sit back and relax.

Similarly, with the recent movie Onward, the external, specific, achievable goal is completing the spell that will bring their father back to life for one day and doing so before the following day’s sunset. Once we know that, we know where the story is going. We know what the ending looks like: either the father comes back for a day, or he doesn’t.

What about Marriage Story on Netflix? What was the goal there? Well, damned if I know — and that’s probably why many people find that kind of movie boring and slow. They don’t understand where it’s going.

Similarly, right now, with COVID-19, there is no goal, and the audience has no idea where this story is supposed to go. How will we know when we’re approaching the end? What does that end look like?

Now, you might argue that “flattening the curve” is the current goal of this story. And while I would agree that is a goal, it is not sufficiently external and specific. What exactly constitutes flattening the curve? How will we know when we achieve it? What will that look like? Will we know in three weeks? Two months? Our public health officials cannot seem to say. And if the audience can’t picture it, it’s not a specific enough goal.

So, what’s the easy fix to the COVID-19 narrative? What should the Trump Administration lay out as our nation’s external, specific, achievable goal as we all watch the only movie playing right now: COVID-19? I have a suggestion: our goal should be to perform antibody testing for all Americans for COVID-19, and all those who have antibodies to COVID-19 — and who are no longer shedding virus — can return to work.

This is a clear, specific goal: performing antibody testing for everyone and allowing those who are now immune to the virus to return to work and re-start the economy. If we know that this is the plan, and that the goal can be achieved in, let’s say, six weeks, investors will feel buoyed. They will know where this story is going; they will know that the economy will begin to breathe again in six weeks.

Plenty of people at home right now have probably already had the coronavirus and are past the point of infecting others. For example, I had a bad cold in February. For all I know, I already had the coronavirus infection. Moreover, if I I did, it’s likely that I’m no longer shedding virus.

But instead of laying out this goal, the Administration has adopted an unsustainable policy. We cannot shut down the American economy and American life for an indeterminate period. That will wreak havoc and possibly lead to any number of catastrophic outcomes, including a depression, stagflation, and the associated adverse health effects of such economic circumstances.

So, we must ask the Trump Administration the same question my screenwriting instructors asked me and my fellow students every week: what’s the external, specific, achievable goal for this story? Where is this story going? How will we know when this disaster movie is over?

Stated differently, if you can’t define victory in sufficiently specific terms, you can never achieve it.

Right now, all of us are watching a movie we don’t understand. We’re bored and restless. We want to know where this is going. We need context to understand the hero’s actions and whether his actions— such as checks sent to every American, etc. — support or don’t support his story-level goal.

Once we know that, we’ll be less anxious. We’ll know we’re in the hands of a gifted storyteller, and that all of this drama is leading to a potentially happy ending.

But right now, we’re watching a movie by a guy who doesn’t understand story structure.

We need a page-one rewrite on this script, and we need it fast.