I was captivated by Steven Thrasher’s emphasis on the words of his colleague, anthropologist Adia Benton: “viruses live briefly in spaces where bodies interface, making the war against the virus is also a war against moments and spaces of connections.” This sentence perfectly paints an explanation for the many social rifts that appeared during this COVID19 pandemic – the “vaxxers vs antivaxxers” or “asians vs Americans” or  “maskers vs non-maskers,” and so forth. Likewise during the HIV/AIDs pandemic, it was “straight men vs gay men.” How might a society maintain unity to combat a pandemic while fragmented enough to not facilitate the spread of the virus? Maybe one way is through communication on the boundaries necessary. The CDC during this COIVD19 pandemic, unfortunately, displayed a horrendous communication efforts on the necessary boundaries with their mix-message on masking. It is difficult to fault entirely the CDC for this issue, however, since achieving this balance between unity and fragmentation is no easy task – especially on a nationwide scale. Perhaps as a nation we need to have deep, critical reflections on both the HIV/AIDs and COVID19 pandemic before hints of any resemblance of an answer might appear. With that said, there are good examples of a closer-to-ideal communications that achieves such balance, evident by speech given by the primer minister of New Zealand. Her communication outlined the boundaries in many aspects while also maintaining the message of compassion and kindness to ensure that society remains united against the pandemic rather than pointing fingers internally and creating divisions.