The Conversation (0)
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Evie Breese
Apr 06, 2020
Richard Humphrey/ Doncaster Council/ Twitter
Scattered with top quality GIFs, Doncaster Council presents this gripping fable to teach us all three key lessons about dealing with coronavirus.
The question is: what do you do with a dead whale?
In November 1970, officials in Oregon, USA decided to blow up a rotting whale carcass. The whole thing went horribl… https://t.co/RPivfPhyXo— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162901
The story begins with 45-foot dead sperm whale, washed up on the beach in Florence, Oregon. Did you know adult sperm whales have the biggest brains on earth?
Anyway, back to the story. So the locals came up with three options for how to deal with the whale.
There was some debate amongst locals about what to do with it. 1️⃣ Although unpleasant, they could leave it to de… https://t.co/LbxvxHnw2B— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162905
After clearly much deliberation, option three was selected. And we're very pleased given that otherwise we wouldn’t have this brilliant learning experience.
George Thornton, who sensibly seems to be wearing a hard hat, was the engineer in charge of the explosion. By his… https://t.co/mbMOJS8km9— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162912
BUT his advice was ignored. Why?
Well, we all know that despite their expertise as, you know, experts, not many people seem to actually listen to experts. See: Donald Trump, who recently stopped his top medical expert Dr Fauci from answering a question on untested Covid-19 treatment.
So how did blowing up the whale go?
Very quickly, the short-sightedness of the plan became evident. The huge amount of dynamite sent massive chunks o… https://t.co/ovFQF7r5RY— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162918
The overwhelming smell sent people running for their homes as rotting whale plopped down around them. The situati… https://t.co/PgsbCFBLeo— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162921
To cap everything off, the main bit of the whale stayed exactly where it had been. The problem hadn’t gone away, o… https://t.co/KE6jOVW9Am— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162922
Could it have gone worse?
BLUBBER FOR MILES. Just, wow.
But most importantly, what did you learn from this story?
Doncaster Council have kindly extracted three key messages, in case you weren’t exactly sure how this relates to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Firstly:
1️⃣ DON’T IGNORE THE ADVICE THAT EXPERTS GIVE YOU. They know what they’re talking about.— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162924
Secondly:
2️⃣ Sometimes, it’s better to just sit at home and do nothing than go outside and do something ridiculous. Let nature take its course.— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162925
And last but not least:
3️⃣ When you ignore expert advice and act like an idiot, you cover everyone else with decaying whale blubber.… https://t.co/HaGT7KZt35— Doncaster Council (@Doncaster Council) 1586162925
Who would have thought Doncaster Council would lead the charge in educating the public about coronavirus?
The exquisitely told story is a noteworthy break from the account’s usual posts educating their 26,000 followers on government schemes and local support services.
Other councils were duly impressed and gave credit where credit is due.
@MyDoncaster From our digital communications team to you...we salute you! Strong gif game, @MyDoncaster, very stron… https://t.co/GwPc6mFe8R— East Riding Council (@East Riding Council) 1586175202
And some suggest that Downing Street could learn a thing or two from their communications strategy, especially since most Britons spent the weekend arguing about whether it is ok to sunbathe.
@MyDoncaster Whoever is running your twitter feed is pure genius. Any chance of him or her delivering a few Masterclasses to No. 10?— 💙 maggie (@💙 maggie) 1586164672
If you would like to see the rotten whale actually exploding, here is that gift from us to you.
Gross.