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Not Business as Usual: The Bite of COVID-19

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The outbreak of COVID-19 is the current word and picture in the air. Put it together with the

burden it comes with, and there is nothing to rejoice about this situation. It is no longer business

as usual. The memory of John Cole in the portrayal of the rise of COVID-19 is another

metaphorical aid in the analytics of hardship times.

Cole was a journalist and broadcaster who worked with the BBC and came from Belfast of

Northern Ireland. He had a role as a deputy editor of The Observer and The Guardian. He had

also taken onto politics editing. His pieces of artwork were well known and entirely captive.

Even though he died in 2013, his memory is quite programmable onto today's informative art of

cartoons.

The analytic principles selected for the description of this piece of work are clarity, gesture

appearance, color format, writing presentations and meaning, and the analysis of the visible

object. The writings on the screen in front of the children, which is supposedly a digital flat-type

TV screen, much reflect modernism and technology rise. The current times have the newness of

appliances that make work easier. First, it is not much bulkier, then it does not produce the

monotonous black and white imaging, and lastly, there are lesser cables attached to it, unlike the

previous semi-digital that required every port-to-port connection. Somehow, it occupies almost

the whole length of the cabinet that supports it. Modernism and technology mean better, more

prominent, and efficient as indeed portrayed in this kind of pictorial presentation.

As the spread of coronavirus intensified, technological advancement also increased, where

numerous innovations sprang up to stop this pandemic spread. There have been several

innovations in place for assistance with this state. There is the genome coding, which allowed for

the trial and experimentation of any new treatments of this disease. Another technology is the

installation of drones onto the skies for monitoring and patrolling to disseminate information that
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may be essential for the public, such as wearing masks. The more available technology is the use

of smartphones, which reduces exposure through necessary distance, maintaining apps such as

contactless delivery, among others. Several technology companies have been able to offer free

online collaborative equipment as others have ensured the use of online software and

collaboration platforms to ensure that workers stay at home. There are also e-medical and

psychological care in place, robot nursing care and AI diagnoses, and more significant data

dashboards, among others.

Written on the screen, ‘COVID-19 SHUTTERS SCHOOL DISTRICTS’, is the core projection

of this work. It may as well mean that school programs in the districts are paralyzed. Nothing

goes on; that is, no school sessions, no tutoring, no extra readings, nothing. A school district is a

special-purpose district whose aim include to operate local public primary schools and the

secondary ones. The context here shows how helpless school districts have become in the

outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has forced every single business into a sudden stop and

hurled people over to measures that may prevent a further spread. Most governments have closed

their educational institutions temporarily around the world in their bid to contain any further

spread of COVID-19 pandemic (UNESCO). The situation here means that over 91% of the

world's student population has halted the learning activity suddenly, which, while analyzing the

artwork, we see two children sitting in amazement.

The supposed two kids staring at one another, project a dilemma state of the situation, where

they are fully absorbed on media while the education process is paralyzed (UNDP). Globally,

after days of schools' closure, the challenge has been to keep the children in schoolwork

progress. So it may as well mean the failure observed across homes by parents who cannot

maintain the educational pace required. As one is supposedly facing the TV screen, the other one
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is engrossed in the tablet, showing the social heresy coronavirus may be presenting across. In

due regard to staying at home measure instilled by the governments, children have had different

experiences getting contained at home with their siblings. Furthermore, the resources at home

may not be that substantial to be shared equally among them, meaning that homes can be

damned when children are full-time contained at home as a result of COVID-19.

On the other side, human cartoons may as well present a couple engaged in talks and thoughts.

They are picturing out how times have changed. The man says, ‘remember when all we had to

worry about was asbestos and lead.’ That implies the time when pollution of the environment

was caused by asbestos and lead, and while the global warming effect was edged off,

coronavirus came in. From the year 1960, research had indicated an existing relationship

between asbestos and cancer (Vimercati et al. 407). The conference conducted by the New York

Academy of Sciences in 1964 on the biological effects of asbestos correlated asbestos with

carcinogenic effects. In 1973, all types of asbestos got determined as carcinogenic to all humans

by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

Concurrently, China had experienced tremendous industrial and economic growth for some past

decades while it deteriorated environmental and public health. Lead pollution was the primary

environmental degradation that was hazardous to public health (Lin et al. 834). These were the

universal challenges that the world was concerned with until coronavirus emerged in the later

months of 2019.

Ambiguous disasters have been presenting in turns, and people had less to worry about lead and

asbestos any more. People turned to political wars, droughts and famine, and pandemic diseases,

among others. The tedious commitment to stop one disastrous factor ushered in the next, and

then another until today, we are talking about the newly presented coronavirus pandemic.
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The general context of this cartoon artwork is based on changes; changes in the environment,

changes in diseases, changes in responses, and even more vital consideration, changes in the

thoughts. For instance, while pollution of the environment by asbestos and lead substances

caused an environmental stir and focused on tackling the presenting issue, the COVID-19

pandemic has left the population with everything on a stop or slightly moving. The thought of

the cartoon man on the artwork shows how regrettable they are, or how he would wish time to be

reversed. Getting engrossed in the thought of a cruel pandemic may be a nightmare to behold.

The pictures of the visible members in unison mean that they are not in any engagement, so they

seem indoors-contained. Locked in by the measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 has

typically made them be inside for a session determined by the government. There is a full

indication that they are following the unveiling of every news.

The seriousness of COVID-19 pandemic soars high with hardships and pain in both the social

and economic output of nations. In the analysis of the above artwork, there is a vast description

of different themes associated with coronavirus. The comparison involved between the past

challenges and the current pandemic is as well an important aspect to draw a line. COVID-19

seems the world's scarier nightmare ever experienced on the face of the earth. The cartoon has

shown a preference for past challenges. It has therefore provided limelight of the extent to which

COVID-19 effects the current universal population.

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Works Cited

Lin, Sihao, Xiaorong Wang, Ignatius Tak Sun Yu, Wenjuan Tang, Jianying Miao, Jin Li, Siying

Wu, and Xing Lin. Environmental Lead Pollution and Elevated Blood Lead Levels

Among Children in a Rural Area of China. American Journal of Public Health, 2011.

UNDP. 10 Ways Technology is Helping To Fight the Coronavirus. February 27, 2020.

https://www.cn.undp.org/content/china/en/home/ourperspective/ourperspectivearticle/

2020/10-way-technology-is-helping-to-fight-the-coronavirus.html.

UNESCO. COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response.

https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse. April 21, 2020.

Vimercati, L., D. Cavone, F. Mansi, E.S.S. Cannone, L. De Maria, A. Caputi, M.C. Delfino, and

G. Serio. Health impact of exposure to asbestos in polluted area of Southern Italy. J Rev

Med Hyg, 2019. https://doi.org/10.15167/2421-248/jpmh2019.60.4.1330. Accessed on

April 21, 2020.