Medical Philately and the World of COVID-19 Postage Stamps: Issues of Truth, Health and Wealth

ABSTRACT

The political, social, cultural and economic worlds have been gripped by unexpected, tumultuous and ad hoc worlds since the emergence of COVID-19 on the world scene in early 2020. It is safe to acknowledge that all, or nearly all, humans on the planet have been adversely affected by its appearance, re-appearance and re-re-appearance in some and many ways. The world's states have also struggled with effective, efficient and acceptable ways to respond to the pandemic at personal, local and national scales. The visibility of COVID-19 is evident in the rise and fluctuating number of cases and deaths as they appear in daily and weekly news reports. An additional perspective of the serious nature of the virus is the appearance on postage stamp issues about diseases, a research focus of medical philately. Since early 2020 nearly 100 countries have issued stamps with a COVID-19 theme. Some countries devastated by cases and deaths and have issued a single or set of stamps with images about the negative impacts on the health and welfare of their populations, economies and environments. Others have not. Some countries have issued a low value stamp about COVID-19 while other countries have issued COVID-19 stamps that are extremely expensive and are unlikely to ever be seen or used by their population. These stamps are designed and produced by private companies for international stamp markets, which include collectors who collect stamp issues with health and disease themes. This chapter examines the COVID stamp issues through August 2021, their major themes and the costs. Stamps, as pieces of visual diplomacy, are observed to be more than reflecting a country's health or human condition, but also to generate income. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.