Healthcare worker makes a valid point about joining an online trend just for the sake of it.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take lives and cause large numbers to be hospitalised, medical facilities and those who work in them are struggling to keep the healthcare system from collapsing, all while having to cope with a lack of protective gear and equipment.

People around the world are applauding these frontline workers for the work they do, and here in Japan messages of support and thanks have been appearing online with the hashtag #GratefulForTheHeroes絵 (#GratefulForTheHeroesPicture).

https://twitter.com/osoba_mogmog/status/1250340275852955648

While the sentiment is certainly heartfelt, one particular image drawn by manga artist Satoru Hiura — best known for Hotaru no Hikari and its sequel Hotaru no Hikari BABY, published in Kodansha’s Kiss magazine– caught the eye of a healthcare worker in Japan who didn’t appreciate the message.

Hiura’s tweet above, which received over 10,000 likes, came with the following message:

“I wanted to express my gratitude to the people who are involved in medical care now, but singing on the veranda is out of the question as I’m tone-deaf, so, as a manga artist, I drew an illustration. I did it in a wallpaper size for smartphones, so please use it if you like.”

This tweet appears to have been the one that broke the camel’s back for healthcare worker Miyuki, who replied with:

https://twitter.com/Pkn2zVN6iC1DHmX/status/1250599556472958976

“All this ‘Hero, Hero’ stuff is annoying!!! We are not heroes!!!! This is just convenient for you!!!! Don’t treat us like heroes when it suits you!!!! We don’t get any relief from people enshrining their art!!!! I really hate this #GratefulForTheHeroes絵 hashtag project!!!! People are just getting excited when they don’t know what the real situation is like!!!“

Miyuki, who is also the mother of two young children, went on to say:

“Encouragement, encouragement, thanks, thanks…it makes no sense!!! When there was talk of school closures, lots of people on Twitter said ‘Many nurses are housewives as well so school closures will mean they’ll have to take time off, leading to less nurses for us, so we’ll be in trouble’, but now you say we’re heroes!!! Idiocy!!!”

Miyuki’s tweets received thousands of likes, with people agreeing with the hypocrisy of people acting selfishly one minute and selflessly only when it becomes an online trend.

“I get what she means — if this was a war, it would be like sending an illustration to a special attack squad.”
“We should treat store clerks as heroes, who risk being infected for a cheap hourly rate.”
“These tweets give me a real sense of the stress being felt by healthcare workers at the moment.”
“It does leave a bad taste when people do things like this to promote themselves.”
“Nobody likes it when an advertisement piggybacks on an online trend.”

The tweets sparked a heated debate between people who agreed with Miyuki and those who didn’t see anything wrong with joining an online trend to support healthcare workers. However, the manga artist who drew the image that kicked off the argument responded with an apology, saying:

“To those who felt uncomfortable by my actions in using the hashtag and the image spreading online, I apologise.
I am terribly sorry.“

While a lot of people do feel a strong sense of gratitude for those putting their lives on the line for others at the frontlines of the pandemic, more will now be thinking twice about the complexities of joining an online trend to look good in front of friends and followers.

However, the bigger problem perhaps lies with government funding. If governments spent more money on their healthcare systems, there’s a greater chance that those on the frontlines wouldn’t be in such desperate need of personal protective equipment right now. And the general public wouldn’t feel like the onus was on them to provide healthcare workers with support, financial or otherwise. But that’s a whole other story for another day.

Source: Twitter/@marikosatoru via Jin 
Featured image: Twitter/@marikosatoru
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