queer_scribbling | Window Symbols for Covid-19 Victims

Old content as of this posting (8 October):
A response to "Mourning Victims of the Pandemic – A Call to Action for Museums" (May 2020), which seems to take a stance that no one is doing anything, and "C-19 Window Symbols for COVID-19 Victims" (June 2020), which is a follow up.

The first post came across as a particular experience being generalized to everyone because the source tweets from May mention:

"No television specials honoring them [...] it wouldn't require a lot of people in studio to show photos of people over music."

I don't know about that person, but I've been watching a weekly collection of 5 obituaries on PBS since April (first Covid-19 related In Memoriam segment dates to April 17th, and there was a mini-segment during the reporting of reaching 200,000 deaths on September 21st). A slideshow of pictures and occasionally video with the host reading the description provided by the family. I get that not everyone watches PBS, but still. What is this person expecting - a national series, their specific local news to do a weekly segment, what?

I can understand the thought process that went into the second post, but I'm going to share a few quotes to try to get at what doesn't sit right.

"Our inspiration was the gold stars displayed for service members who’ve died in the line of duty."

There's something about the militarization of a pandemic that I'm not really sold on. This isn't a war where we've signed up to take part in it. Those who have died from Covid-19 are more like collateral damage and civilians dying in a war they don't want.

"These symbols are meant to show the collective grief people are feeling over the loss of loved ones, but also to show how many people have been affected by the disease."

What about social stigma associated with the coronavirus (1, 2, 3)? What about Long Haulers, those who can't get tested, and those who don't really fall into these four categories that focus on being recovered or having someone die? What about the politicization of the pandemic? I just don't feel confident that people will feel comfortable (or safe) revealing this information.