Community responses to the SARS-CoV-2, or “coronavirus” outbreaks of 2020 reveal a great deal about society. In the absence of government mandates, debates over issues such as mask mandates and social distancing activated conflicting moral beliefs, dividing communities. Policy scholars argue that such controversies represent fundamental frame conflicts, which arise from incommensurable worldviews, such as contested notions of “liberty” versus “equity”. This article investigates frames people constructed to make sense of coronavirus and how this affected social behavior in 2020.
