This article demonstrates that narratives within digital media petition other users towards a sense of communal expression of emotion. Indeed, it is not the content or text that often causes media to become viral, but instead it is the affects and emotions which that content actually produces. This article highlights and showcases such affective interactions within the context of both the Australian and German Government’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It showcases an empirical analysis of social media narratives to demonstrate that emotions are an active component of legal consciousness. Weaving together notions of emotionality, narrativity and communal identity, I argue that public reactions to the way the governing authorities in both countries implemented lockdowns, restrictions and vaccination mandates, reflect contagious emotions at work in public consciousness. It is argued that a cumulative impact of the contagious emotions of fear and love contribute to the validation and perpetuation of legal consciousness, which interlaces affect, judgment and identity.