Culture & Community | Arts & Culture | Public Health | COVID-19
| Jesus Abraham Morales Sánchez Photos. |
A new, online comic strip is teaching Connecticut residents to spot the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 in Spanish. Now the public health advocate and artist behind it is hoping to get the word out to save lives.
The comic comes from New Havener Jesus Abraham Morales Sánchez, an artist, organizer and educator with the Connecticut Immigrant Rights Alliance and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England. As he releases the strip into the virtual world, he’s hoping it will tackle a lack of accurate information surrounding COVID-19 in the state's Spanish-speaking community.
“In conversations with family and friends, people are either super scared and they think it’s the end of the world, or they think it’s bogus,” he said in a phone interview Sunday, in the midst of deep cleaning his home. “There’s nothing in between. Even on the CDC [Centers for Disease Control] website, the language options are very limited.”
Morales Sánchez started thinking about the comic strip late last week, as he saw a rise in misinformation circulating around his social media channels. It came in both English and Spanish: posts that suggested one could kill the novel coronavirus by gargling salt water or vinegar, or that one was less susceptible to disease if they drank hot water every 20 minutes.
Soon people that he knew were sending him audio from Fox News that downplayed the importance of isolation. Others posted home remedies. As he brainstormed, he looped in fellow organizers Vanesa Suarez and Constanza Segovia, both of whom are also artists.
They agreed: they’d seen very little information circulating in Spanish. And it wasn’t just a nagging problem—it was a pressing public health risk. As the pandemic landed officially in New Haven this weekend, Morales Sánchez drafted and put up the images. There are currently 10 frames in all, including a link to information from the Centers for Disease Control.
He said he sees it as part of an uphill battle with misinformation. Currently, the City of New Haven sends out call notifications via Everbridge in both English and Spanish. Although schools closed indefinitely last week, the Board of Education also sends bilingual messages and alerts to parents.
As of Monday, Mayor Justin Elicker had issued orders that all city restaurants, bars, theaters, childcare centers and public gathering spaces be closed. He has also closed City Hall to members of the public, instituted a daily press briefing, and asked that members of the media exercise proper social distancing at press conferences.
City Health Director Maritza Bond has also done “at least half a dozen interviews to Spanish media both locally and statewide,” according to city spokesperson Gage Frank.
"We are also trying to send out our newsletters in both English and Spanish which we’ve been doing the last couple email blasts," Frank added.
For Morales Sánchez—and many around him—that doesn’t specifically mean the word is getting out. As people packed into restaurants and bars over the weekend, he started a Facebook live video with information about the spread, prevention, symptoms and risk of COVID-19 in Spanish.
In addition to his own drawings, he’s sharing work from the graphic artist Kimi, whose oeuvre is completely in Spanish. The more accurate information he can spread, the calmer—and more cautious—he is hoping to make the community around him.
| After his diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes in 2018, Jesus Abraham Morales Sánchez began a science-themed coloring book. |
"It’s a way to fight the mass hysteria,” he said. “We have to show caution and share information, but not to the point that it’s incapacitating.”
This series is not his first foray into graphic design as a form of public health education. In October 2018, Morales Sánchez was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, which puts him at higher risk of complications for the novel coronavirus. To dispel many of the public health myths he heard at that time, he started work on a science-themed coloring book that showed the effects of insulin on different parts of the body.
As a reproductive and immigrant rights advocate, he has also made cartoons and self-described “doodles” on sanctuary cities and sexual assault. They often involve dinosaurs, which is one of his first loves.
He said the newest drawings also help remind him of best practices—like not to touch his face even though he talks with his hands. As multiple stick figures come in and out of frame, cough into their elbows, and practice isolation, text above their heads advises them of best practices. The comic includes with recipes for making hand sanitizer and bleach-based home disinfectant. At the end of the graphic, he has linked to the Centers for Disease Control for more information.
“I’m taking as many precautions as possible,” he said.
Find Jesus Abraham Morales Sánchez' work by following @hey_zeus_94 on Instagram.