Lockdown hobbies: documenting the pandemic through cartoons
The year 2020 was one I am
sure many of us are eager
to forget. Life consisted of
alternating between being
cooped up at home and being
cooped up under many layers
of PPE (when it arrived) in
hospitals. The boredom from
lockdowns was coupled with
the unsettling uncertainty of
redeployment to COVID ICU;
however, it was also a chance
to revisit old, often solitary,
hobbies.
For me, I passed the hours when I wasn’t in the hospital by
drawing cartoons. We were surrounded by COVID, thinking
about COVID, talking about COVID. It was natural to draw about
COVID. In the 12 months from March 2020, I created around 40
cartoons about the pandemic, the majority of which appeared
in the Medical Independent – Ireland’s only investigative
newspaper for healthcare issues. Over the course of these
cartoons, a few of which are published here, one can observe
the transition from initial fear and uncertainty in early 2020, to
frustration and resignation as the year dragged on, to hope at
the start of 2021 with the advent of effective vaccines, before
snapping back to frustration with the slow pace of vaccine
deployment. From the Escher-esque cycling through different
levels of lockdown in Ireland, to the global tussle over vaccine
supplies, it was a strange period in history.
It was also a strange period to be a doctor. In many ways, we
anaesthetists were quite protected. Compared with colleagues
in other specialities, we had ready access to PPE. While we
had never seen the disease before, COVID ICU was not as far
out of our comfort zone as it was for many others who were
re-deployed there. However, as the pandemic dragged into a
second, and then a third year, the toll it took on us all mounted
as the rounds of applause faded. Both the Irish health service
and the UK’s NHS are under considerable strain. Gone is
the camaraderie and displays of public support, replaced
by daunting waiting lists and spreading burnout among
healthcare staff.
The act of drawing did provide a welcome respite in the
evenings, and it was not my intention to document the
pandemic, but in hindsight I hope that these cartoons capture
moments many of us (especially in Ireland) can relate to from
that time. Many of these might not age well, and most will
(hopefully) be forgotten. However, for posterity, I have donated
a few of them to the Association of Anaesthetists’ Heritage
Centre at 21 Portland Place. In a few years’ time if you want
to look back on the pandemic, you can pop in for a visit, and
perhaps a few might still be on display!
Eoin Kelleher
NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences,
University of Oxford
Twitter: @EoinKr
Instagram: @EoinKelleherCartoons
Website: www.eoinkelleher.com
