The use of metaphors as a way to frame problems or issues has a dramatic impact on the way the public may respond to them, and we are seeing that with the COVID-19 pandemic here in Australia.

Federal and state governments, the media both mainstream and social have all embraced a “war” metaphor when describing how the coronavirus infects people and the impact it has on the country, the economy and society.

Further, by doing this, they have anthropomorphised the virus imbuing it with a personality which reinforces it as an ‘enemy” with human characteristics that give it some sort of morality...