“Is the sky falling?” by Janice Fried

In February of 2022, we released our first Open Call: How might we recreate public health as art, letters, stories, and poetry? The following are a few of the art submissions we received from this open call.

“My piece, done in mixed media with fabric shows the mixed messages and how easily they can confuse one’s thinking.”
Janice Fried

Is the sky falling?

“With all the misinformation surrounding COVID and the vaccine, this is my reaction to people who believe false claims instead of scientific fact. The title of this piece, “Is the sky falling?” is based on the story of “Chicken Little” who, after an acorn falls on her head believes the sky is falling. Chicken Little then runs around telling all the other animals about what she believes spreading a kind of hysteria in the barnyard. In this age of social media spreading at the speed of a falling acorn, there is a great danger in not being able to counter falseness with fact. This can and can continue to become a public health issue.”

Janice Fried