The Monitor is a weekly column that covers everything in the WIRED culture world, including memes, movies, TV, and Twitter.Twitter can either ruin your day or keep you sane. The little blue bird icon can either send you a torrent of bad news or give you a good laugh. It was always so. Covid-19 has been raging on. The content has mainly been macabre in nature, but there has also been some gallows humor. People got through it with #2020Challenge or the Suez Canal boat trapped. This week, there was a new challenge: My Fall Plans/The Delta Variant.Similar to Expectations vs. Similar to Expectations vs. Twitter user @jush_for_fun posted this text and a photo of Shea Coule, RuPaul's Drag Race. What about the Delta counterpart? A photo of Sasha Velour who defeated Coule in a dramatic season.Fun? Yes. It is also very helpful. It's not journalism where there is a paragraph with data and facts in the middle. However, Covid-19 cases have been on the rise. Half of the US population is currently fully vaccinated. However, The Washington Post published a report yesterday that showed that hot spots, largely driven by the highly transmissible Delta virus, are appearing even in the most vaccinated areas. Hospitals in Texas and Texas are swamped by patients, with new cases up 86% compared to just two weeks ago. Although vaccines have helped slow the spread of Covid infections, people who are vaccinated for them seem to experience milder symptoms. However, there is no doubt that Delta is ready and waiting to destroy summer and fall.It's hard to take all that information in one go. Greg Barber, my colleague, pointed out this week that the Delta variant already affects our perception of risk. After more than a year and a half of uncertainty, lockdowns, and fluctuating mandates it is difficult to understand the severity. This is where the meme might be able to help. In these last days of sunshine it is difficult to concentrate on the future of 2021 if Delta is not controlled. The meme-makers are aware of the danger, but if their creations end up in the feeds for the vaccine-hesitant, perhaps comparing Delta with the last scene of Carrie or My Girl will help. Or the Titanic iceberg. Or the slow cooker from This Is Us. It's a lot to hope for a meme. But it might offset Chet Hanks Instagram rants.Offsetting seems to be the best thing we can hope for. There are so many conspiracy theories and misinformation about Covid-19, the vaccine, that it seems like the best thing we can hope for. As the summer progresses, the number of vaccines is increasing but so are the numbers of Delta infections. The US and the rest of the world need all the help they can get. It involves reminding everyone about the biggest blunders in pop culture.Wired has more information about Covid-19
