Two women have written an ode to the face of B.C.’s fight against the coronavirus.
Provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry has been the point person, and often calm voice, for daily information about the spread of COVID-19.
The doctor, who has served on the front lines of the SARS and Ebola outbreaks, has been widely lauded for her sensible demeanor amid growing anxiety around the pandemic.
She’s already garnered her own fan club, and now, a theme song — performed by a pair of roommates, decked out in matching plaid shirts.
“I didn’t get on listening to the Dr. Bonnie update from the beginning — I just sort of started tuning in last week,” said Vicki Ferguson, who helped write the song, ‘Dear Dr. Bonnie.’
“And now I’m sort of searching every day for what time is it going to be, and finding that a calming part of my day.”
Ferguson and roommate Amy Shier borrowed from the song ‘Dear Theodosia’ in the Broadway smash-hit musical Hamilton.
“We are both Hamilton fans,” Ferguson told CKNW Radio.
“I’m not sure which one of us thought of it at first, but I had just been thinking about dear Dr. Bonnie for a while, and then I went from there.”
She said once they came up with the idea, it only took about half an hour to put words to paper.
Henry’s plain-spoken, human approach to delivering information — sometimes with levity, at other points shedding tears — is at the song’s heart.
“Dr. Bonnie, what to say to you? You have nice eyes and we just learned your name when you came into our world you cried, and broke our hearts,” go the opening lines.
“You will lead us through self-isolation, we’ll work from home for you, order in groceries too. We will cancel all our fun vacations, we’ll stay inside for you, maybe a month or two.”
Ferguson said response to the song online has been overwhelming. In under 24 hours, the performance has surpassed 5,000 views on YouTube.
She added that the pandemic has touched her personally, explaining that her immunocompromized sister has made the tough decision to self-isolate, while a close friend in the U.S. has been diagnosed with the disease.
Ferguson said she hopes the melody will help lighten the gloomy mood the crisis has spawned.
It’s a hopeful note reiterated in the catchy tune’s chorus:
“We’ll blow this thing to smithereens. Vaccines, vaccines, will destroy COVID-19.”
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