COVER: In the foreground, a black person busses dishes while giving side-eye to two white adults talking as one of their kids sneezes. We see the air flow out and billow around them, splashing on a listening face and forming a miasma that fills the rest of the background. The busser has a button that says “service with a smile” even as their mouth is covered by a k100 mask. In large hand drawn lettering at the top of the page, the words “WHY WE MASK: IT’S NOT” sit on a black background. And then out in the miasma and in quote marks it says “JUST A COLD”. In the bottom right, it says “Laurel Lynn Leake” above a large “2024”.
Surrounded by drawings of COVID-19 particles of various sizes, it says “THE BASICS: COVID-19 is a viral illness caused by SARS-CoV-2, and primarily spreads through the air.” The first endnote appears, signified here as e1. It continues “A single infection - even a “mild” one - can severely damage nearly every organ system in your body. Each additional infection risks further harm to your immune system, lungs, heart, brain, guts, and reproductive organs, and can result in permanent disability or death. e2 About 75% of all adults e3 (and at least 30% of children e4) are at a high risk of developing severe SARS-COV-2.
If you’ve ever had COVID-19, EVEN ONCE, you are now high risk.” It then says “THE VIRUS:” and shows “SARS- COV- 2” separated into it’s three parts. A bubble connected to SARS says “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome”. A bubble connected to COV says “Corona Virus (crown-shaped, round with spikes)”. And the bubble connected to 2 says “similar to 2002-2003 SARS-CoV outbreak”.
Large hand-drawn text reads “COVID-19 is an AIRBORNE ILLNESS e5” over that same curly haired character from the last page sneezing with a big “KACHOO!” We see a large billow of mist and droplets. A measurement in meters is below, showing larger droplets dropping in the first couple meters and the more misty particles continuing to 6 meters. In a box below, text reads “It spreads when infected people exhale, cough, or sneeze plumes of tiny RESPIRATORY PARTICLES. You can shed hundreds of viruses in a single minute, just by breathing. e6 And sneezing can send viral gunk flying up to 6m (20ft)! Once they’re in the air, the tiniest RPs can linger in poorly ventilated spaces for HOURS...invisible to the naked eye. e7,e8”
A bubble points at a big blob in a loose ring of different sized circular drops: “DROPLETS...are barely visible globs of fluid that drift to the ground.” A smaller circle is labled: “AEROSOLS...are microscopic blobs, so light they float.” Large text reads “What’s inside a respiratory particle?” next to a cute Laurel looking through a magnifying glass. Arrows point out a small “SARS-COV-2” & little squiggles of “mucus”. The particle grows even larger to show the spiked SARS-COV-2, as well as dots of “dust” & translucent blobs of “lung fluid”. Text to the side reads “RPs are made up of lung fluids, mucus, & saliva, as well as contaminants like dust, bacteria, & viruses. e9 When a COVID-19 contagious person exhales, they send out lungfuls of SARS-CoV-2, hidden inside aerosols & droplets. e10 Aerodynamic aerosols carry the highest dose of viruses and are the most dangerous to inhale. e11 The particles protect their passengers as they fly through the air, ready to be inhaled by someone new.
hi hi it's me Laurel - Have a free printable science zine! WHY WE MASK: IT'S NOT JUST A COLD, aka A Handy Scientific Guide To Surviving COVID-19 Together. Feel free to spread it far - wide hit me up if you're interested in printing &/or distributing free copies :D Links below! #CovidIsntOver
