The role of comics in public health communication during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, evolving containment measures have created an unprecedented need for rapid and effective science communication that is able to engage the public in behavioural change on a mass scale. Public health bodies, governments, and media outlets have turned to comics in this time of need and found a natural and capable medium for responding to the challenge. Comics have been used as a vehicle to present science in graphic narratives, harnessing the power of visuals, text, and storytelling in an engaging format. This perspective paper explores the emerging role and research supporting comics as a public health tool during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Divulgación científica a través del lenguaje del cómic: la COVID-19

“…A título ilustrativo, sirva la exposición Virus y epidemias en el cómic, en la que Manuel Barrero (2020) 10 ofrece un interesante recorrido -que arranca en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII-por las epidemias y pandemias contadas "tanto en el humor gráfico como en la historieta de formas muy variadas, desde la sátira periodística o el humor infantil hasta el drama o la aventura distópica" (Foto 5) e . Y es que el cómic, la narrativa gráfica, por sus cualidades tanto en el plano visual -antropomorfización, metáforas visuales, elementos ficcionales, personajes y escenarios de lo más variopinto-como en el textual -lenguaje adaptado al discurso de sus destinatarios, oralidad, llamadas al lector, procedimientos reformulativos [11][12] -, resulta idóneo para explicar conceptos complejos, abstractos y, sobre todo, para implicar al lector [13][14][15] . Asimismo, permite captar el interés d. Remito al interesado en cómics editados en inglés sobre este campo a la sección "COVID-19 Comics" (https:// www.graphicmedicine.org/covid-19-comics/) del cibersitio Graphic Medicine.…”

Baryon number violation searches in neutrino experiments

“…Experimental limits from neutrino experiments on the partial lifetimes of protons and bound nucleons for explicit decay modes. Experimental limits from Super‐Kamiokande are provided by Kearns (), while limits from other experiments are from Tanabashi et al (). Image courtesy E. Kearns (Kearns )…”

“…Experimental limits from Super‐Kamiokande are provided by Kearns (), while limits from other experiments are from Tanabashi et al (). Image courtesy E. Kearns (Kearns )…”

“…Comparison of experimental limits and expected reach of future experiments with range of allowed partial lifetimes from various classes of theoretical models that predict proton decay. Image courtesy E. Kearns (Kearns )…”

Towards Covid-19 Literacy

“…Secondly, the rapid and far-reaching spread of both trustworthy and untrustworthy academic papers about this pandemic has led to a Covid-19 paperdemic (Dinis-Oliveira, 2020;Palayew et al 2020). Thirdly, the anti-vaccine movement causes both the infodemic and the paperdemic to spread anti-vaccine (mis)information (Ball & Maxmen, 2020;Kearns & Kearns, 2020;Saribas & Çetinkaya, 2020).…”