Viral Menace, featured on this month’s cover, comes from a small group of works labeled as Steadman’s “Lockdown Portfolio” (S. Williams, Ralph Steadman Art Collection, pers. comm., 2023 Jan 23), In a review of Steadman’s book from the Guardian, journalist Nadja Sayej wrote, “It’s the very last image in the book that sums up 2020. Steadman’s drawing was an artistic reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The world is in a different place in 2023, but respiratory viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza virus, and respiratory syncytial virus, still circulate globally, causing substantial morbidity and mortality. Some populations, including older people, young children, pregnant women, and people with underlying health conditions, are more vulnerable to severe disease from those three respiratory viruses.

Source: The Guardian October 19, 2023 15:21 UTC