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Published April 7, 2025

Toxic Excellence

With RFK in charge of U.S. public health policy, a frontline health worker reflects on what it was like to work through the COVID pandemic.
Page 2: Contains 12 separate panels, each in the shape of a vertical rectangle or square, with dark green, yellow, or red backgrounds featuring healthcare workers and patients. Panel 1: White text on a dark green background: “With so much at stake, we dug deep. There were no days off for many weeks, even months.” Panel 2: Through an ajar white door, Meredith is about to exit with her back turned. The clock on a two-drawer chest to the left of the door reads 6:30. Panel 3: Meredith is about to enter the door again; this time, the clock reads 23:30. Panel 4: White text on a dark green background: “We surged up with borrowed staff from other agencies and temporary workers. Our work included:” Panel 5: A light-skinned person with curly dark hair wearing headphones sits at a computer and says: “COVID-19 Call Center, how can I help?” Panel 6: A masked, white-clad health worker with long brown hair and dark skin approaches a man in a car, preparing to take a test sample. Panel 7: A person in a complete white suit, mask, and protective goggles knocks on a door, holding a food package. Panel 8: A woman with light skin and green hair sits at a computer, examining graphs on her screen. Panel 9: A masked health worker with light skin and red hair, wearing a green t-shirt, administers a vaccine to a masked brown man who is sitting. Panel 10: There are side-by-side bags with food in them. The one in front is labeled “Food Pick up”. Panel 11 and 12: A still shot from a video shows a bald, light-skinned health officer with glasses. The man's speech bubble says: “Today, I’m issuing an order requiring masks in indoor public places…”Page 3: Contains 7 separate panels, each in the shape of a vertical rectangle with dark green, yellow, or red backgrounds, depicting online meetings between two people: Meredith and Dejah. Panel 1: This horizontal rectangular panel spans the width of the page, featuring various documents, videos, and snippets from social media accounts that evoke communication. White text on a dark green background on the right at the top of the panel: “My team works on the communications.” Panel 2: Meredith, looking to the right in an online conversation, says: “So you recommend drinking more caffeine for the migraines?” Panel 3: A dark-skinned woman with glasses and brown hair in a bun, Dejah, replies: “Yeah, but it makes the insomnia even worse.” Panel 4: In the online meeting, a person with their camera switched off is represented in a yellow circle with the capital letters "AK." Next to it are two speech bubbles that say: “I’m camera off because I’ve got that weird eye thing happening…” “Doesn’t help with the racing heart issue, either.” Panel 5: Meredith, appearing from a little further away, says: “Thanks for working this weekend. You all rocked it!” Panel 6: White text on a dark green background: “But our mission and supportive team culture got us through.” Panel 7: This panel is divided into 6 equal squares featuring a red heart, a clapping hand, the letters "AK" in a circle, a green heart, another clapping hand, and a white heart, representing reactions from the team.https://frontlinecomicsproject.org/Page 5: Five separate panels—three small and two large horizontal panels—with yellow, dark green, pink, and light green backgrounds featuring vaccination graphics, people speaking online, and many others. Panel 1: On a yellow background, the large panel displays a bar graph with two data points, one higher than the other on the left, accompanied by the text: "-Over 83% of people eligible are fully vaccinated. - Over 70% are fully vaccinated across all racial groups. *As of Nov 21, 2021." In the upper right corner of the panel on a dark green background, white text states: "I'm proud we have the highest level of vaccination in the nation for a county of our size.” Panel 2: White text on a dark green background: “But this achievement has been at the expenses of our workforce. Driven by the weight of responsibility, there is always pressure to do better, to do more. It’s never enough.” Panel 3: Monique, a dark-skinned woman with black curly hair, wearing a pink headset and white microphone, states: “Let’s not celebrate yet. What more could we do to drive the cases down?” Panel 4: Susan, a light-skinned woman with dark hair in a messy bun, wearing glasses and a yellow top, says: “Thanks for working late again. I just need you to do one more thing…” Panel 5: This large panel, spanning the width of the page, features a collage of images from the previous panels in dark green color on a light green background. The facial expressions of people are notably sad. In the upper left corner, on a dark green background, white text reads: “We have a culture of TOXIC EXCELLENCE."Page 6: Three large horizontal panels with pink, yellow, and light green backgrounds illustrate communication issues, shopping, and meetings. Panel 1: A light-skinned woman with brown hair, wearing a yellow T-shirt, reads from a smartphone she holds against a pink background. Surrounding her are speech bubbles with various negative symbols. The speech bubbles read: “YOU ARE RUINING OUR LIVES.” “Who is managing this account? They should be fired!” “YOU PATHETIC BIG PHARMA REPRESENTING TERRORISTS POSING AS HEALTH OFFICIALS!!!” “I HATE THE F*!%ING HEALTH OFFICER.” Her response is: “We’re just trying to save your lives.” In the upper left corner of the panel, another small panel on a dark green background displays: “Meanwhile, my team responds to the increasingly hateful comments and emails. As vaccine and mask mandates have been enforced, the opposition has reached disturbing levels.” Panel 2: A group of masked people shopping in a supermarket. One uses crutches, another pushes a grocery trolley, and a mother and daughter are in the centre. Behind them, grocery shelves are vaguely outlined with white lines on a yellow background. At the top in the centre of the panel on a dark green background, white text: “But at least I work in Seattle.” Panel 3: This panel, with a light green background, shows two people—one male and one female—sitting at a large table with microphones in front of them. The brown-skinned man on the left, with short dark hair, looks at the woman on his right and says, raising his index finger: “If you refuse to end the mask mandate, consider yourself fired.” The woman on the right, with light skin and short blonde hair, replies: “But masks will prevent more people from going to the hospital and dying.” Two young people on the right hold a red banner that reads: “STOP MANDATORY VACCINES.”Page 7: Eight panels of varying sizes, arranged like puzzle pieces, feature dark green, yellow, and white backgrounds, showcasing conversations among people. Panel 1: White text on a dark green background: “A CDC study found that public health workers have a higher rate of PTSD than health care workers during the COVID pandemic”. Panel 2: A masked sheriff stands next to a white car and looks at a masked blonde woman sitting in it. Panels 3 and 4: The panel in the centre left serves as a speech bubble, in the lower left corner is a light-skinned man with brown hair, holding his hand to his face and partially covering it. He says: “Our photos got posted to Facebook with “Harass these people if you see them.” Panels 5 and 6: In the centre panel there is a woman with blonde hair, wearing dark green clothes and glasses, and in the panel to her right there is a panel serves as a speech bubble,. She says: "A sheriff escorts me to my car after work for my safety". Panels 7 and 8: In the panel in the lower right corner, a woman with brown skin and dark hair, dressed in white, raises her left hand and her speech appears in the panel to her left. She says: “I need a mental health break, but then who will do the work?”Page 8: Nine vertical rectangle panels of the same size, featuring different shades of green and black backgrounds, depict the speeches of participants in the online meeting. Panel 1: Meredith looks to the right in an online meeting with a deeply sad expression. Panel 2: The representation of a person with their camera switched off appears in the form of a circle with the word "CC" in capital letters, with icons related to the online meeting below it. Panel 3: White text on a dark green background: “We’ve lost so many co-workers in the past several months”. Panel 4: The circle representing another person whose camera is switched off is indicated with “KC” in capital letters. Panel 5: White text on a dark green background: “Some on loan returned to their home agencies. Some retired early”. Panel 6: The circle representing another person whose camera is switched off is indicated with “HK” in capital letters. Panel 7: White text on a dark green background: “Some needed more job security. Many just burned out”. Panel 8: David, a bearded, white-clothed man with sunken undereyes and a wrinkled forehead, looks at the screen sadly. Panel 9: White text on a dark green background: “Someday this pandemic will end. But I worry about whether the public health workforce will ever recover”.Page 9: Panels of nine vertical rectangles of the same size depict Meredith and Dejah looking at a tablet, the information they read and Mr Kennedy. Panel 1: White text on a dark green background: “Update. February 2025. The pandemic emergency ended over a year ago. We’ve been able to turn attention into other pressing issues”. Panel 2: Meredith and Dejah standing side by side looking at a tablet screen. Meredith is smiling, and Dejah is curiously focused on the screen. Panel 3: The tablet screen with red-coloured sides creates this panel. There are three different pieces of information on the tablet screen that looks like positive graphics: "Overdose deaths down 22%" at the top, "New state ban on toxic "forever chemicals"in the middle, "Food safety programme expands" at the bottom. Panel 4: White text on a dark green background: “But support for public health has dropped and just weeks into a new administration, a maelstrom of executive orders has hit”. Panel 5: The tablet screen with red coloured sides creates this panel. There are three different information on the tablet screen look like falling down: “U.S. withdraws from W.H.O.” “Freeze on all federal grants.” “Immigrants fear ICE raids at health clinics”. Panel 6: Meredith and Dejah standing side by side looking at a tablet screen. This time, Meredith is looking confused and Dejah is looking at the screen sadly. Panel 7: White text on a dark green background: “A staunch opponent of vaccination and leading source of health disinformation is the head of all federal health agencies”. Panel 8 and 9: In the bottom panel on the right, Mr Kennedy, with grey hair, a brown tie and an earth-coloured jacket, speaks with the index finger of his left hand raised close to his face. The panel to his left functions as a speech bubble for the panel on the right, which says "Raw milk is safe to drink". Around the text are orange lines, reminiscent of sound waves and lightning.Page 10: Eight separate panels, each in the shape of a vertical and one horizontal rectangle featuring three women, one of whom is a reporter, posters about vaccination and a computer screen. Panel 1: White text on a dark green background: “As public policy shifts, vectors carry on”. Panels 2 and 3: In the background, there are two cows on a dairy farm. They are looking towards the straw on the ground. In the front, a ginger female reporter is speaking with a green microphone in her hand. The third panel contains her speech: "So far, over 900 dairy herds have confirmed bird flu. In humans, there are nearly 70 cases…" Panels 4 and 5: The fourth panel, a speech bubble, shows the speech of the woman in the fifth panel, which is larger than the other panels. The woman in the fifth panel, with long hair and an unhappy and helpless expression, looks at the computer screen and says: "I don't know if I can work through another pandemic..." Behind the woman, two posters are hanging on the dark green walls. The poster on the left has black writing on a white background, a heart image on the top and the words "Narcan Saves Lives" underneath. The poster on the right is pink and larger than the other poster. It has an image of an injection and the words "Free Vaccination Clinic" underneath. Panels 6 and 7: Meredith crossed her fingers, holding her right hand close to her face. The panel on her right side functions as a speech bubble. It is a bubble made up of large and small panels crossed one on top of the other: "Fingers crossed!” Panel 8: There is a part of a light green framed computer screen with the text "H5N1 Update: First human death in U.S.". In the lower right corner of panel 8, the word "FIN" is written in black in capital letters.

This comic was originally published by the Frontline Comics Project in 2022, and was updated for Crucial Comix in 2025.

 

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