Rachel Rosler is the Director of Emergency Medicine at Monash Medical Centre. She’s also the illustrator of these quirky cartoons about a coronavirus named Bob.
As you might imagine, 2020 has been a big year for the Emergency Department at Monash Medical Centre. Having worked at the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic for months, Rachel recently took a well-earned week off to rest and recover.
A week of leave in 2020 is less exotic than it may have been in years gone by, and like many of us in ‘iso’, Rachel was looking to acquire a new skill in her time off at home.
Rachel began an online cartooning course as a way to unwind and distract herself from the pandemic.
She says her light-hearted cartoons helped her make the invisible monster that is COVID-19 “a little more human, and a little bit stupid”.
“As we’ve learned more and more about the virus in 2020, this invisible monster has become visible. I’ve taken it an extra step further by giving it a face and a name too,” says Rachel.
Bob and his friends are often defeated by small obstacles, which Rachel uses as a reminder for how everyone can take simple steps to slow the spread of this virus.
“It might seem silly for something as simple as 1.5m of physical distance to defeat a cartoon villain, but in the real world, keeping our distance, washing our hands and wearing a mask can truly help save lives.
“We’ve got this.”
