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People’s “levels of feeling anxious or sad or blue have increased over time,” reveals Simon Bacon, professor of health, kinesiology and applied physiology at Concordia University and co-lead of a large international COVID-19 behavioural study. Yet, that nearly all Canadians wear masks now “is a huge shift” from about two per cent initially, Bacon said. “There is an altruistic element of everyone pulling together.” The experience in countries like New Zealand, where government messaging on COVID-19 was framed as a collective effort and the pandemic was quickly brought under control, reinforces the critical importance of the relationship between populace and government if people are to buy into mass public-health interventions, he said.