Vaccinate: Posters from the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2022 we are living through a global pandemic, and vaccines are one of the most effective strategies for slowing the spread of infectious disease, minimizing symptoms, and lowering healthcare demands. In short, vaccines save lives and can reduce the risk of contagion from social interaction. In the United States in late 2021, after the vaccines had been broadly available for almost a year, one in five adults still chose not to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Art can disrupt what is embedded in our minds and open us up to new perspectives and insights. We hope to offer access to images, insights, and knowledge that help people have the freedom to consider their role in the pandemic and the role of vaccines. We hope that experiencing the creativity, humor, and sentiments of artists will encourage those who have avoided the COVID-19 vaccine to reconsider and take advantage of a way to prepare their immune system should they be exposed to the virus. We are thrilled to provide the posters for those who want to enjoy, reflect, and share them with others who are inspired by the power of vaccines and who want to help stop the spread of deadly viruses. CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS include: Rachel Claire Balter, Thane Benson, Randy Bish, Katie Bradshaw, Heinzy Cruz, Hector Curriel, Ben Darling, Nicholas Deason, Kerry Eddy, Margaret Elsener, Paul Fell, David L. Felley, Bob Hall, Hayley Jurek, Justin Kemerling, Abbey Krienke, Stephen Lahey, Anna Lindstrom, Malia McCreight, Yihang Meng, Eric Morris, Katie Nieland, Henry Payer, Natalie Pulte, Nikolaus Stevenson, Pawl Tisdale, Janet Walters, William Wells, & Jave Yoshimoto DOI:10.32873/unl.dc.zea.1334https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/1132/thumbnail.jp

Developing Pandemic Comics for Youth Audiences

In spring 2020 our team received funding from the Rapid Response Research program of the National Science Foundation to develop comics that would help youth understand the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project built on a decade of expertise creating comics about the biology of viruses. In collaboration with virologists and artists, we developed three comic stories about COVID-19 during the pandemic and posted them on-line during the last half of 2020. The fictional narratives address fundamental issues in biology, virology, and network science, in order to help readers understand the complexities of living through a viral pandemic. The stories focus on three themes: the biology and social context of the COVID-19 virus; the relationship of wild animals, particularly bats, to the pandemic; and the impact of the pandemic on Tribal communities. We describe the challenges of comic development during the pandemic and the feedback from youth on whether the comics were appealing, interesting, and understandable. The stories were posted on worldofviruses.unl.edu and are published by the University of Nebraska Press as the book, C’RONA Pandemic Comics, with essays for youth about the virus and the pandemic