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‘Who Sanitizes the Sanitizer?’: COVID Comics and Sanitisers
  1. Ishani Anwesha Joshi,
  2. Sathyaraj Venkatesan
  1. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Tiruchirappalli, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India
  1. Correspondence to Ishani Anwesha Joshi; ishanianweshajoshi097{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Much like face masks, hand sanitisers have become a household item and a prominent symbol since the COVID-19 pandemic. As sanitisers began to be widely used, contingent issues related to toxic ingredients in sanitising products, heightened pandemic-related anxiety, unscrupulous profiteering through inflated sanitiser prices, obsessive sanitisation, contamination fear, stockpiling, panic buying, and concerns regarding the overall effectiveness of hand sanitisers emerged. Building on these themes, the present article investigates the various issues related to sanitisers after a brief review of the history of sanitisers. To do so, the present article analyses sequential comics and single-panelled cartoons from comic artists such as Randall Munroe, Sarah Morrisette, Shivesh Shrivastava and Dan McConnell. This essay extends its inquiry beyond examining sanitisation practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and associated cultural implications. Drawing on insights from Object Oriented Ontology, this article brings to relief how sanitisers have evolved into objects that hold, govern and shape our modern existence. Furthermore, the present article highlights how the comic medium visually enunciates the lived experiences of the pandemic, rituals of sanitising and associated issues.

  • COVID-19
  • Comics and Medicine
  • Graphic Medicine
  • Medical humanities
  • Ethics

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable as no data sets were generated and/or analysed for this study. Not Applicable.

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Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable as no data sets were generated and/or analysed for this study. Not Applicable.

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Footnotes

  • Contributors Both authors have contributed equally to the article. IAJ, guarantor.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.