1. 2022
  2. In space no-one can hear you wheeze

Negative Rat

Chris Downes
The Mercury (Hobart)

In 2022 Tasmania handled its students’ return to school slightly differently from the mainland states, which required students to take rapid antigen tests (RAT) twice a week. Students in the state received up to two RATs a week, but only if they had COVID-19 symptoms. Famous for using the marsupial Tasmanian devil as an icon in his cartoons, Chris Downes introduced a new (mammalian) metaphor: the ‘negative rat’. 

cartoon called Negative Rat by Chris Downes