COVID-19 Pandemic

For up-to-date information regarding COVID-19 coronavirus, including prevention and treatment, please visit CDC.gov.

Overview

The COVID-19 Pandemic refers to an ongoing coronavirus pandemic that began spreading in Wuhan, China in early December 2019. In January 2020, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the first case in the United States had been detected. As of late January 2020, there have been 26 deaths attributed to the virus and over 800 cases.

Background

On December 8th, 2019, the first symptoms related to the virus began occurring in Wuhan, China, with the first reported cases on December 31st. On January 10th, 2020, The New York Times^[5] reported that the first death related to the virus had occurred in Wuhan. On January 21st, The Straits Times^[6] reported that a sixth person had died from pneumonia following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

Developments

Global Impact

Several countries have reported cases of the Coronavirus, including most of Europe, Asia, and North Africa.^[11] As of March 5th, 2020, there have been 3,300 deaths to the illness in 98,000 cases reported, with over 50,000 recovered.^[12] Japan took the drastic measure of closing all schools,^[13] though it has not seen a spike in reported cases. It's theorized this has been done to protect the upcoming Olympics in the country.

In The United States

On January 21st, 2020, the CDC^[2] announced the first case of the coronavirus in the United States. Since then there have been over 100 cases reported in the United States, with California and Washington having 54 and 46, respectively, as of March 5th, 2020.^[8] There have been 11 reported deaths due to the disease, with the majority coming from a single Washington nursing home.^[9]

Coronavirus Lockdown

According to Business Insider, on January 23th, 2020, Wuhan's public transportation was shut down and by January 27th, "quarantines followed in the cities of Huanggang, Ezhou, Chibi, Xiantao, Zhejiang, Qianjjiang, Huangshi, Xianning, Yichang, Enshi, Xiangyang, Jingmen, Xiaogan, Dangyang, and Suizhou." City residents were unable to leave their cities until further notice due to the Coronavirus. On January 27th, 2020, Twitter user @manyapan or according to Daily Dot, "Manya Koetse, the editor-in-chief of the website What’s on Weibo" tweeted a thread of videos with the caption, "How to survive staying indoors during #coronavirus lockdown according to these very important videos making their rounds on Chinese social media. Firstly: don't be afraid to express your feelings and get in touch with your emotions" (shown below). The initial tweet gained over 29,400 likes and 6,400 retweets in four days.

On January 27th, Twitter user @manyapan continued in her thread with another video caption, "Second: don't completely isolate yourself but spend quality time with a friend or family member" (shown below). The tweet gained over 10,100 likes and 1,300 retweets in four days.

Online Presence

On Reddit

On January 18th, 2020, Redditor ShadowedTiger submitted a post titled "What's going on with the new coronavirus in China? How does a completely new virus manifest?" to /r/OutOfTheLoop.^[4] Within 72 hours, the post gained over 5,900 points (96% upvoted) and 400 comments.

The following day, Redditor bil3777 created the /r/China_Flu^[1] subreddit for discussions about the virus.

On Twitter

On January 19th, Twitter user @davidpaulk posted a video showing passengers on a flight out of Wuhan being "screened for coronavirus symptoms" (shown below). Within 48 hours, the video gained over 491,000 views and 1,800 replies.

On January 21st, Twitter user @Zhao_Dading posted a video of a "disinfector" sprayed a cloud in China (shown below).

On Instagram

On Febraury 9th, 2020, Instagram began offering users that click on or search for the #coronavirus hashtag a link to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's website for credible information on the virus.^[7]

On YouTube

On YouTube, Let's Players played Plague Inc. to simulate the spread of the virus. For example, MessYourself Gaming posted such a video on February 7th, 2020, gaining over 600,000 views (shown below, left). Pravus Gaming also posted such a video on January 28th, gaining over 600,000 views (shown below, right).

In Porn

On March 4th, 2020, Motherboard^[10] reported a spike in Coronavirus-related porn, including a video from Spicy x Rice which uses porn as a PSA to talk about proper Coronavirus protection. "We thought we would use our porn as an avenue to get some legitimate information out with some comic relief included to get people interested and reduce our chances of being banned," said Spicy.

PETA "Anagram"

On February 19th, PETA posted a tweet saying "Coronavirus" was an anagram of "Carnivorous," leading people to mock them online.^[14][15]

Related Memes

Corona-chan

Corona-chan, also known as Wuhan-chan, is an anime-style anthropomorphic representation of the novel coronavirus the outbreak of which occurred in the Wuhan province of China in late 2019 and early 2020. The character is usually depicted as a young woman in a traditional Chinese dress holding a bottle of Corona beer.

Escaping to Greenland

Escaping to Greenland refers to memes referencing Greenland often being the last country to survive global epidemics in the Plague Inc. video game.

Hazmat Suit Edits

Hazmat Suit Edits or Hazmatposting refers to a series of memes which involve editing various characters inside a hazmat suit. Originating from and popularized by the 4chan's /pol/ board, the trend is mostly related to the ongoing discussions of the Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak.

Various Examples

News about the spread of the virus spawned numerous memes, many of which referred to the outbreak as a "plague" (shown below).

Search Interest

External References