With the coronavirus crisis crossing fifteen million confirmed cases around the globe, health organizations such as the World Health Organization have suggested that the pandemic is unlikely to improve this year. This means that multiple problems associated with the virus are likely to emerge in the future as they have been since the crisis started around six months ago.
In order to show the struggles and impact of infection, the popular television series Grey’s anatomy has announced that it will be showing the ways in which the pandemic has impacted the lives of people and specifically health care workers in its new season.
Grey’s anatomy is one of the longest-running seasons on television at the moment and is primarily based on the lives of doctors, nurses, and other health care workers and the challenges they face during their work in hospital settings as well as how it impacts their own life and health.
In accordance with the report provided by Entertainment Weekly, the seventeenth season of the series will incorporate real-life stories and events from the current health crisis, especially those of front line health care workers.
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Krista Vernoff, who is the executive producer of Grey’s Anatomy, stated that “We’re going to address this pandemic for sure. There’s no way to be a long-running medical show and not do the medical story of our lifetimes.”
During her discussion with the Quaranstreaming: Comfort TV That Keeps Us Going panel, Vernoff further explained that the writers of the show have to meet with health care workers before each season to collect interesting stories and anecdotes from hospitals and similar facilities.
For the upcoming season of the series, the stories that have been heard are much different. The majority of the anecdotes are filled with painful experiences related to the pandemic. Vernoff said that the doctors the writers met this year were “…literally shaking and trying not to cry, they’re pale, and they’re talking about it as war — a war that they were not trained for.”
Being one of the most popular television show based on real-life experiences of health care workers, the Grey’s Anatomy team states that it is a ‘responsibility’ of the series to show the multiple effects the health pandemic has had not only on people but front line workers.
Currently, the only problem faced by the writers and everyone working on the newest season is figuring out a way to keep the humor as well as the romance in the show while also showing harrowing experiences from the pandemic.
The coronavirus crisis, since its beginning, has affected millions of lives around the world and is expected to cause further problems in the near future.
The impact of the pandemic is so widespread and dangerous that the medical community has already warned that even after the coronavirus infection has been controlled, countries should be prepared for another mental health epidemic.
The rates of mental health diseases have gone up significantly in the past few months while setting record highs in the US. Unlike the current crisis, this epidemic may not come with a solution and may take even longer to be over.