Given their primacy in discussions over public health measures throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper focuses on leadership’s messages around masks and mask-wearing, aiming to emphasise the responsibility of leadership in the formation of norms during public health crises. It argues for the importance of robust messaging as a key factor in confidence building and public abidance to health measures, using the shortcomings in mask-wearing communication as a case study. For this purpose, the paper first discusses securitization theory and places it in the context of health to build on risk communication framework. Secondly, it examines the role of leadership and meaning-making in that process by discussing the WHO’s early mask guidance and consequent challenges at the state-level by political and health leadership. Lastly, the paper confirms the importance of citizenry’s successful reception of health guidance and outlines potential tactics to do so. Having discussed that, the paper addresses other hindrances to public health messaging and confidence-building that rest outside official communication, namely disinformation and misinformation but also negative non-discursive messaging. This, with the aim of building on available literature on the development of epidemiological response and management from a security lens.

Keywords: epidemiological response; public health; securitization theory; meaning-making; mask guidance