During the COVID-19 epidemic, cartoonist Toby Morris and microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles worked together to use cartoons to communicate the science of viruses and how they spread, how masks help in disease prevention and vaccinations. As scientists and the general public became more knowledgeable about COVID, their cartoons dealt with ever more complex topics, including genome sequencing and how the virus was mutating. Their first collaboration, on a cartoon called ‘Flatten the curve’, demonstrated the importance of keeping infections low so that the health system would not be overwhelmed. Soon their work, which they called ‘visual explainers’, was seen by millions of people around the world. Newspapers, governments, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the World Health Organisation used their work to communicate important scientific concepts and to teach people how to stay safe.
This cartoon had a very New Zealand flavour – it explained how to show people you cared while avoiding handshakes, hugs, hongi and high fives. It demonstrated nods, shrugs, raised eyebrows and the ‘East Coast Wave’, a gesture mostly completed with the chin, which the prime minister had suggested as an alternative greeting a few days before. This cartoon was published just five days before the first COVID lockdown in New Zealand.
All the COVID-19 work by Wiles and Morris has been collected together in a Bumper box set edition on the Spinoff website.