Design against panic: solutions to combat coronavirus and misinformation

The coronavirus, called in medical terms COVID-19, has not yet been declared pandemia, but its unstoppable expansion throughout the world makes the paranoia fueled by the diabolical cycle of the news grow.The images of entire cities in quarantine, closed airports, empty supermarkets and the cancellation of international events began in Asia, continued in Europe, with Milan as a nerve center, and now threaten the United States.The apocalyptic future of science fiction films is felt in those places.

From Leonardo da Vinci in the fifteenth century to the present, designers have sought solutions to prevent the spread of pests with ideas that reflect the fobias and deepest human fears.But that also create an aesthetic of the pandemic, either with campaign hospitals raised in record time, masks such as mandatory clothing code or high -tech devices such as drones and interactive maps of its progress.Or the curious caddie-a hybrid between the Pope-Mobile and the Roger Podan armchair, by Roger Dean-with which they evacuate people with coronavirus symptoms at China airports.

Soon we could see each other dressed in the shield Be a Batman ("Be a Batman"), created by Chinese architect Sun Dayong as a result of the appearance of Coronavirus.It is a futuristic accessory inspired by bats, one of the possible sources of COVID-19, whose body temperatures increase while flying, which allows them to survive despite having the disease.

Dayong, confunder of the Panda study, has used a carbon fiber material to create a body membrane that hangs like a backpack.It has a PVC movie with embedded cables that heat the plastic at a high enough temperature to kill the pathogen.

This protective suit is still a prototype, but its creator hopes to find a sponsor and offers its services for free.After containing an epidemic, he thinks that the shield could be updated with Google Glass technology, or simply use as a unique private mobile space for people ".

Quarantine is, for the moment, the most effective and oldest method to fight virus like Wuhan's.Leonardo da Vinci, after surviving bubonic pests that whipped Milan between 1484 and 1485, designed a future three -level city that eliminated the crowded neighborhoods and separated trade, housing and transportation.It was never built.

It was the first urban planning project designed with hygiene and disease prevention ideas.Already in the nineteenth century, tuberculosis promoted the construction of sanatoriums, such as the famous Paimio, of the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto in the southwest of Finland.On this occasion, China has achieved a feat of defensive quarantine architecture and engineering with the construction of a 34 hospital in ten days.000 square meters and a thousand beds in Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak.And hope to open the second for 1.500 patients in the next few days.

The last picture i get to take of my car :(.Walked Out of The Woods After a Morning of Turkey Hunting To Find Out ... https: // t.CO/BDOQK7CKOT

— Spencer Craft 🐄 Thu Apr 22 16:47:28 +0000 2021

When a tweeter asked him if it was a joke, Baskin replied: "Yes.Not.Not estamos seguros.Viruses are not a joke.Wash your hands when you can.And get vaccinated when you can ".He has tried them in the N95 model, one of the most common masks, but will not be available during the current viral crisis due to the impossibility of covering the high number of orders that he has received.

Misinformation is the true threat

A joke looks like the multiple homemade solutions that citizens look these days through the streets of the world's main cities.The crisis of Coronavirus has exacerbated ingenuity.Instagram accounts such as New York subway creatures or China Shanghai observed collect the most crazy models made ad hoc that are seen these days in the streets.

The irrational fear of Coronavirus has led the German-Namibio Max Sedentopf designer and artist, resident in London, to create a dozen provocative portraits with people dressed in masks made with underwear, a lettuce leaf, a plastic bottle or a compress.

Under the title how to survive a mortal global virus, SIENDOGF intends to offer "useful solutions for using simple daily objects to protect".A criticism of despair for buying masks, despite the fact that doctors have warned of their limited efficacy.The message, with which the artist intended to "get us out of our comfort zone", has not been received as expected and Sentagf has had to apologize to the dozens of people who wrote feeling offended by this work.

Even so, the most useful thing in these circumstances is not to get carried away by panic.Misinformation is the real threat.With the precedents of poorly calculated responses in cases such as HIV or Ebola, researchers from the University of Johns Hopkins in Baltimore (Maryland) have developed a map where the propagation of the epidemic can be followed live.Its objective is to promote scientific understanding and increase the public perception of risk: of the 95.748 Total cases detected until the moment of publication of this article, 53.422 have recovered.

With this approach, the American Museum of Natural History of New York organized two exhibitions: epidemic (1999) and counts back for zero (2015-2017) about the development of pandemics seeking to neutralize fears, encourage empathy with victims andImportance of science.In short: design, criticism, art and science united in a single message: that panic does not take.