because of jessica wildfire, I found martin rowson

EsĀ­tiĀ­mated reading time is 4 minutes.

JESSICA WILDFIRE IS BECOMING one of my faĀ­vorite jourĀ­nalĀ­ists. She deĀ­scribes herĀ­self as an ā€œunĀ­fluĀ­encer,ā€ which I asĀ­sume is a play on those odd creaĀ­tures of soĀ­cial media known as ā€œinĀ­fluĀ­encers.ā€ She is also a top writer in govĀ­ernĀ­ment, health, polĀ­iĀ­tics, culĀ­ture, and life on Medium. And beĀ­cause of her, if rather inĀ­diĀ­rectly, I disĀ­covĀ­ered the artĀ­work of Martin Rowson.

I finĀ­ished reading WildĀ­fire’s latest arĀ­ticle ā€œThings Anti-Vaxxers Told Me This Week,ā€ which opens with these lines: ā€œThe anti-vaxxers are angry at us. They say we’ve been judgĀ­mental. We don’t listen to them. We don’t reĀ­spect their views. So I started listening.ā€

The rightwinger’s motto: ā€œAll inĀ­forĀ­maĀ­tion is subĀ­jecĀ­tive and noĀ­body can prove anything.ā€

Here is what the anti-covid-vaxxers (who I asĀ­sume are also the anti-maskers) had to say:

•  ā€œRules don’t work, so we shouldn’t have them.ā€
•  ā€œEveryone’s reĀ­sponĀ­sible for their own health.ā€
•  ā€œNoĀ­body can prove anything.ā€
•  ā€œIf it’s not hapĀ­pening to you, it doesn’t matter.ā€
•  ā€œAll inĀ­forĀ­maĀ­tion is subjective.ā€
•  ā€œEveryone has a right to a bad opinion.ā€

These were the two questions:

1. What’s gonna happen when anti-mask/anti-covid-vaccination parĀ­ents send their chilĀ­dren to a school that does not manĀ­date vacĀ­cines and masks and those chilĀ­dren come home with Covid? 1

2. Who are those parĀ­ents gonna blame? 2

 

Martin Rowson: photo of Jessica Wildfire.

To offset the grotesque and someĀ­what ugly imĀ­ages in Mr. RowĀ­sons’s carĀ­toons below with someĀ­thing fair, I have inĀ­cluded this photo of JesĀ­sica WildĀ­fire from her Amazon auĀ­thor’s page. There you will learn that she has pubĀ­lished three books: ProĀ­fessor Gone Wild, How To Train Your Demon: EsĀ­says For Screw Ups, and Go Get Your EveryĀ­thing: The Shortest Self-Help Guide You’ll Ever.

Martin Rowson’s covid cartoons

To catch readers’ atĀ­tenĀ­tion, I wanted a draĀ­matic image so went off to Google and typed in ā€œcovid virus carĀ­toon.ā€ This led me to the fanĀ­tastic image at the top of this page. I traced this carĀ­toon to Martin Rowson, a regĀ­ular conĀ­tribĀ­utor to the British newsĀ­paper The Guardian. NeedĀ­less to say, the image above wasn’t the only piece by Rowson that WOW!-ed me.

Rowson conĀ­tributes his artĀ­work priĀ­marily to The Guardian along with the Daily Mirror, the TriĀ­bune, the Index on CenĀ­sorĀ­ship, and the Morning Star. He is chair of the British CarĀ­toonĀ­ists’ AsĀ­soĀ­ciĀ­aĀ­tion and has pubĀ­lished thirĀ­teen books of ficĀ­tion and artwork.

So, I wanted to share my ā€œdisĀ­coveryā€ of Rowson and so seĀ­lected five of his pieces that adĀ­dressed the global Covid-19 panĀ­demic. Each image inĀ­cludes a blurb from The Guardian adĀ­dressing the topic of the arĀ­ticle for which Rowson did the carĀ­toon. Right-click on any image to enĀ­large it.

 

Martin Rowson cartoon: Covid Variants.

VacĀ­cines and coroĀ­nĀ­avirus variants
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vacĀ­cine ofĀ­fers as little as 10% proĀ­tecĀ­tion against the Covid variant first seen in South Africa, reĀ­searchers have suggested.ā€
(FebĀ­ruary 8, 2021)

 

 Martin Rowson cartoon: UK Coronavirus Lockdown.
 
Boris Johnson’s coroĀ­nĀ­avirus lockĀ­down easing
ā€œP
eople in EngĀ­land and Wales—and parts of Scotland—can now eat inĀ­side restauĀ­rants and pubs (but please don’t); can hug (but be very careful); can go abroad on holĀ­iday (with a lot of caveats): the reĀ­laxĀ­ation of rules ofĀ­fers some very mixed public messaging.ā€
(May 17, 2021)
 
 
 
Martin Rowson cartoon: Boris Johnson Covid Report Card.
 
Boris Johnson’s Covid reĀ­port card
ā€œ
The UK’s public spending watchdog has found that the govĀ­ernĀ­ment had no conĀ­tinĀ­gency plans in place to deal with the Covid crisis.ā€
(May 19, 2021)
 
 
 
Martin Rowson cartoon: Covid Masks Off
Masks off or consequences
ā€œ
Boris Johnson, Sajid Javid and Priti Patel tackle footĀ­ball, Covid and asylum seekers.ā€
(July 7, 2021)
 
 
 
MartinRowson cartoon UKCovidPingdemic 1200
 
The UK’s Covid pingdemic
ā€œ
MinĀ­isĀ­ters have shelved proĀ­posals to urĀ­gently overĀ­haul the Covid conĀ­tact tracing app in EngĀ­land as cases surge, prompting claims they have lost conĀ­trol of the so-called ā€˜pingĀ­demic’.ā€
(July 16, 2021)

 

 
Martin Rowson cartoon: UK Coronavirus Journey.
 
The UK’s coroĀ­nĀ­avirus journey
ā€œ
A sciĀ­enĀ­tist adĀ­vising the govĀ­ernĀ­ment has acĀ­cused minĀ­isĀ­ters of alĀ­lowing inĀ­fecĀ­tions to rip through the younger popĀ­uĀ­laĀ­tion in an efĀ­fort to bolĀ­ster levels of imĀ­muĀ­nity beĀ­fore the NHS faces winter presĀ­sures.ā€
(July 23, 2021)

 

Finally

To read more of JesĀ­sica WildĀ­fire’s writing on Medium, click here.

To see more of Martin RowĀ­son’s art in The Guardian, click here.

 


FOOTNOTES:

1   I iniĀ­tially wrote, ā€œWhat’s gonna happen when anti-mask/anti-covid-vaccination parĀ­ents send their chilĀ­dren to a school that does not manĀ­date vacĀ­cines and masks and those chilĀ­dren get Covid and die?ā€ but thought better of it.

2   I iniĀ­tially wrote, ā€œWho are those parĀ­ents gonna blame—Biden or Obama or that old standby boĀ­geyman, the libĀ­eral colĀ­lege proĀ­fessor of the ’60s?ā€ but, again, changed my mind.

 

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