Long COVID and his gang of symptoms are the focus of a new Pima County Health Department campaign: a comic book with a main character who’ll appear this weekend at Tucson Comic-Con.
The county has launched a long COVID campaign to increase awareness about the long-term health complications that often come with a coronavirus infection.
They are using comic book-style storytelling to make the information approachable. People who attend the Tucson Comic Con from Friday, Aug. 30 to Sunday, Sept. 1, will be able to get a look at the campaign at a booth near the tabletop gaming area. The character of Long COVID will be for photos.
“COVID has a little bit of fatigue that comes with it,” PCHD spokesperson Cassandra Greer said. “People’s eyes roll and they get tired of talking about it. First time, it was a pretty traumatic time. It’s just one of those topics that isn’t welcome all the time anymore.”
The comic is mean to help start conversations about the illness, in order to keep educating members of the community, Greer said.
Some of the most common long COVID symptoms include brain fog, chest pain, fatigue, dizziness, depression, anxiety and difficulty breathing.
“We want to have people taking about long COVID again because it can be quite a debilitating illness,” Greer said. “It is a real thing. I think the latest was that six percent of people with COVID are at risk of getting long COVID.”
The comic features Long COVID and the Sons of Illness — the symptoms depicted as gang members — and their “misadventures.”
“We thought, at least introducing it in a comedic way might get us over the hump of people who are tired hearing about COVID,” Greer said. “Maybe they’ll be able to relate and learn a little bit about it. But really, our call to action is getting vaccinated.”
Greer said that visuals make complicated topics — such as long COVID — easier to digest and understand. The comic was the result of the effort of a collaboration between the Pima County Communications Office, which Greer said includes writers and the illustrator, and their counterparts in the Health Department.
“We took messaging from the CDC and we took each health message and we tried to connect it to a relatable storyline,” Greer said. “There’s a comic that will show Long COVID as a couch surfer. He starts out as a guest. He’s only gonna stay for a little bit but ends up staying for a long time.”
The campaign is an in-house product but they’re also partnering up with the University of Arizona’s CoVHORT research and surveillance study.
The comic was illustrated by Chiara Bautista Carpena, a county graphic designer.
“We meet weekly and we talk about the messages and how to portray those messages visually,” Bautista said.
Bautista said the style of design they chose for the comic was to ensure people could interact with the material easily while scrolling on social media.
“We needed something that is visible in a frame and to get the message across in one post,” Bautista said.
Long COVID, the character, will be at the Tucson Comic Con for photos.
“I don’t want people to think we’re making light of it. That’s not our intention at all,” Greer said. “The reason we’re using comedy and storytelling is to make it more approachable for people. We’re here to shed light on it so more people are aware of it.”