SINGAPORE, 2020, APRIL 20 – The Virus Vanguard is a team of superheroes created by Gov.sg and Wanton Doodle to battle the COVID-19 pandemic in a parallel world.
The team consists of five members – Circuit Breaker, Fake News Buster, MAWA Man, Dr Disinfector and Care-leh Dee.
For more information on the characters, kindly refer to the following link.
As much as we welcome new ideas to educate the public in the fight against Coronavirus, MAWA Man’s background story caught our attention and we felt that we should address it.
MAWA is an acronym for Must Always Walk Alone, and as the name suggests, he is the safe-distancing enforcer. The visor-wearing character resembles a certain X-Men with an anti-Liverbird symbol on his chest and a pitchfork belt buckle.
His backstory as quoted in the Gov.sg’s website, stating that he is “a fanatical Manchester United fan who grew up in the 80’s when Liverpool kept winning titles and he was constantly taunted by his two Liverpool fan brothers. This made him despise everything Liverpool including their motto You’ll Never Walk Alone (YNWA).”
“His hatred for Liverpool so far exceeds his love for Manchester United that it manifested as a telekinesis power to push objects and people through his eyes.”
Ironically, the football world has never been more united in this global pandemic and we are unsure on why would the government choose a divisive approach among two major group of football fans in Singapore.
We hope the authorities will re-think this backstory as it unnecessarily creates further divide within the community. This is the exact opposite of the SG United strategy.
In addition, three of the characters’ designs, namely MAWA Man, Dr Disinfector and Care-leh Dee do not have masks or protection against the virus. This could mislead the public and is inconsistent with the Prime Minister’s message.
We look forward to a unified national strategy. In the meantime, stay home and stay safe!
P.S.: Oh, did we mention that we actually have our very own local superhero (no, not VR Man) – Sacred Guardian Singa created by TokuAsia?
Images extracted from Gov.sg website and Facebook page.
