ACADEMIA Letters
Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama:
the Case of Grey’s Anatomy
Valentina Possenti
Debora Serra
Introduction
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreading has caused a worldwide pandemic and,
since the very beginning, has been affecting the whole community globally as per multiple life
issues strictly concerning not only the health-related domain, but also the economic, social
and cultural dimensions. To name some, people living in all areas of the globe have been
suffering from several effects of this huge public health emergency, such as economic and
working worsening conditions, a compromised emotional status and reduced access to care,
as well as increased contagion risk perception (WHOb, 2020).
Some evidence show that researchers employ science fiction and fantasy in public engagement, advocacy and education as significant sources of insights to identify public interests,
inspire policies, and influence future science. These uses of science fiction as a supposed
source to reflect public interests are undermined if the intended audience or beneficiaries of
research interpret the examples employed by researchers differently (Menadue et al., 2020).
During 2020, many shows and film productions shut down. Among them, Grey’s Anatomy
had to stop before completing Season 16 with 21 episodes, instead of 24. Then, the show
came back on screen with Season 17 in November 2020, both in the USA and in Italy. Even
with a downsized schedule from 25 to 16 episodes due to the difficult filming in pandemic
time, the seventeenth season started narrating the COVID-19 pandemic at the Grey Sloan
Memorial Hospital, by interweaving it with the long-lasting plot (Studarus, 2020). So far,
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
1
Grey’s Anatomy is a long-run television series, with a universal popularity (consistently a
‘top 10’ television show in the USA and in other countries as well), and its setting in a busy
urban tertiary-care teaching hospital. The fictional hospital is located in Seattle, whereas
filming taking place in Los Angeles previously (Serrone et al., 2018), the actual set is in the
State of Washington (Studarus, 2020).
Materials and Methods
We analysed the episodes of Season 17 from n. 1 to 6, broadcast from November to December
2020 in the USA with a quite same timing in Italy, too. Using the word search function, we
carried out a content analysis to the six episodes’ scripts to observe the storytelling cases
about COVID-19 pandemic, both as per hospitalized patients or as if the disease affected some
of the main characters (e.g., Meredith Grey or Tom Koracick). We ran the textual analysis
independently by a generalist software rather than specific tools, because the actual focus
was to detect associations to public health issues involved by the epidemic. Our intent was
exploring feelings, myths and legends on risk perception drivers as well as main worries and
fears in the general population by analysing recurring topics, expressions or wording in such
a popular show.
Results
We analysed the COVID-19 storytelling in Grey’s Anatomy 17x1-6 as follows by the frequency of the mostly recurring terms. We explored four macro topic areas: 1) COVID-related
outcomes; 2) diagnostics or non-pharmacological interventions; 3) risk perception; 4) people ethnicity. As expected, COVID/COVID-19 and pandemic as well are the mostly recurring
terms, with great peaks in the middle episodes [n. 3 and 4]. A few times other COVID-related
terms occurred, as disease standing alone or the more jargon illness, or words indicating presence or absence of symptoms, and relating to therapy or treatments. A concept we found
expressed many times is all around death and patients’ loss. About diagnostics or preventive
measures, facemask use and testing were the main drivers. Sense of fear or being scared is
the absolute indicator for risk perception, whereas as per individuals’ ethnicity black people
are the most recalled, in opposition to whites. Chinese ethnicity is mentioned just once in the
first episode and Asians four times in the fourth; on the contrary, China, Latin, Caucasian,
and African are terms never occurring. We found three macro topic categories with recurring related expressions. In the first group, as per COVID-associated outcomes we observed
a set of issues on how the pandemic affects public health globally, such as: occurrence of the
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
2
newly generated rules and operational protocols due to epidemic emergency; above all at the
beginning, lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) supplies; uncertainty about therapies
and treatments. On the other hand, we have the health professionals’ perspective: diffuse
burnout or hard feelings affecting emotional state of surgeons, as for instance ways to communicate severe health outcomes to patients and their relatives. The second group is about
social issues such as health inequalities, stigmatization processes and individuals struggling
with challenges to the private life (e.g., living apart from their families, not in the condition
to hug and have physical contacts with family members). Other relevant tracks in these six
episodes concern mental health and human traffic.
Discussion and Conclusions
Grey’s Anatomy is a widely popular medical drama that even in the past has been the subject
of scientific papers published internationally (Torgerson, 2020; Serrone et al., 2018; Hallam,
2009). Since the fall 2020, it has been offering a prompt and multidimensional narration of
the COVID-19 emergency. As expected, the hospital setting has served as the main contextual
driver to clinical issues, such as hospitalization procedures or pertaining the professional performances delivered by the high-level surgeons. They, in fact, do not cope easily with “losing
patients” and do not get used to the high speed of death toll due to the pandemic. In Grey’s
Anatomy, the entire storytelling is centered on all surgery fields and death or patients’ loss
are highly estimated since the first Season in 2005, as it is considered an assessment indicator
of the surgeons’ performance (Serrone et al., 2018).
By the story structure in its seventeenth Season, Grey’s Anatomy has also been telling to
what extent the COVID-19 has generated ‘alone’ effects within the broad healthcare sector.
Examples of that are the delay to other non-urgent surgery or treatments, because the response
to the pandemic has become the first and only issue that matters (PASSI and PASSI d’Argento
National Working Group, 2020). We observed that despite health professionals having been
recognized globally as “heroes” since the very beginning of the pandemic, this specific term
does not occur anytime in the episodes of the show (Cox, 2020). Or in the same way, another
stylistic choice is not focusing on nurses.
We detected a high-level attention to social issues (ASSET, 2015; Possenti, 2018) such as
stigmatisation processes (WHOa, 2020): characters never used the word “Chinese” to indicate
the virus, although President Trump named it (Gladstone, 2020). In the same way, the screen
players chose not to give importance to the fear against Chinese people. Patients showing
stigma against Chinese health personnel occur only twice, in the first and the fourth episodes
and, in both cases, the momentum ends immediately.
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
3
Apparently, the pandemic emergency looks like it is affecting all individuals in the same
way, but it is not at all (Stokes et al., 2020; Killerby et al., 2020; Gold et al., 2020; PriceHaygood et al., 2020; Millet et al., 2020). The COVID-19 occurrence serves as a further case
to enhance inequalities in health as well as more in general (US HHS, 2020). As Torgerson describes (2020), Grey’s Anatomy always deals with social topics and one of the most
is about blacks vs white people. This feature is not missing in the pandemic scenario, but is
even greatly addressed. For instance, one of the main concern the medical doctors talk about
is how much medicine and diagnosis capacity are centered on white patients, or again the big
attention paid to the Afro Americans and the black community overall. During the episodes
from third to sixth, in fact, Dr. Pierce, Dr. Bailey, Dr. Weber and Dr. Jackson (all play actors
are black) speak about the big incidence of COVID between black community with a special
attention to life conditions and bias, the socalled social determinants of health that have historically prevented people of color belonging to racial and ethnic minority groups from having
fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health (US HHS, 2020). There is
already increasing evidence for disproportionate COVID-19 effects on some of those population groups (Stokes et al., 2020; Killerby et al., 2020; Gold et al., 2020; Price-Haygood et al.,
2020; Millet et al., 2020), because poverty and healthcare access affecting these individuals
are strongly associated with wide-ranged health outcomes and risk factors (US HHS, 2020).
Such a high degree of attention to the real world has been possible thanks to the medical
advisors, like Linda Klein (who can also be seen on screen as Nurse Linda), and meetings between the writers and real COVID doctors, about their experience fighting the virus (Studarus,
2020). The producers have included all real-life things that occurred since the beginning of
the epidemic and the narration reflects the actual timing. For instance, the adoption of the
preventive measures has dominated the big scene over all the 2020 and the availability ofPPE
has been a major issue, when the world was not prepared and filtering face pieces were not
a common use good (WHOb, 2020). In all episodes 1-6 we found someone mentioning the
wearing a mask issue.
There was also the question of how to recreate ethically a COVID situation without drawing resources from facilities still on the frontlines. Back in March, the show donated boxes of
gloves and masks to local Los Angeles hospitals when it became clear there simply was not
enough PPE. For set decorator, Nicole Cramer (who slyly reveals that during a quarantine plot
line, in a series first, Meredith and her sisters will venture into their house’s toy-strewn backyard), it meant looking in less obvious places for set dressing. She reported they knew that
the storyline was going to be based in COVID, so she had to research how to get in screening
tents and pop up tents and, especially, not taking away them from hospitals in condition of
real necessity (Studarus, 2020).
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
4
As usual, in Grey’s Anatomy a relevant space for narration is the introspective sphere,
sense of desperation and human limitations now as never are on the stage: the novel coronavirus wins (or at least seems to win) everything and everyone. It is cleverer than any surgeon
is, faster than any rider is, more pervasive and intrusive than any other aspect of life (Mehta,
2021). In each episode, indeed, medical doctors have to face the huge burden due to the situation, in terms of epidemic spreading but also as per its effects on everyday life. Almost all the
medical doctors among the main characters have a breakdown. If it is impossible to explore
all the COVID-19 consequences on the real life (WHOb, 2020), in only six episodes Grey’s
Anatomy has been capable of speaking about mental health, sexuality, treatments, baby blues
and inequalities.
Dr. Grey and Dr. Koracick were the two designated to suffer from COVID-19 with the
biggest burden on Dr. Grey that went on a vent at the end of the sixth episode. In this part
of the show, the same physicians usually going around in the hospital holding the iPads, who
have witnessed this kind of anguish again and again, have now contracted the coronavirus
and transitioned from caregiver to care-receiver, navigating physical suffering and fear for
both themselves and their families. To our knowledge, just in its first six Episodes of 17 Season, Grey’s Anatomy implemented an evidence-based and non-stereotyped communication
in public health (Reynolds, 2008; US HHS, 2008), addressing what it is recognized as key
factors at international level, both as experimented in pandemic time previously (HEG, 2011;
Infanti, 2013; Crosier, 2014, ECDC, 2018) and tackling the socalled “infodemics” condition (The Lancet, 2020; CDC, 2020). In comparison with analysis of communication flows
during this public health emergency (Seiter, 2021), the narration under observation resulted
actually effective and consistent in capturing the ‘spirit of the place’ (Haukeland, 2017), here
intending the most countries in the world living the COVID-19 pandemic within the broader
context of the post-trust society (Löfstedt, 2005). We privileged this observation placed in
a pre-vaccination context to highlight the most part of health emergency that the COVID-19
has been meaning over the world since the very starting moment. So far, such an observation
is missing in literature, but might biased somehow because the Authors may have excluded
some terms and, conversely, focused on certain issues. Anyway, basing on a appropriate setting, Grey’s Anatomy has actually achieved the world record to be one of the first medical
dramas to have included extensive narrating of the emergency from the COVID-19 epidemic.
The true public health message we found in the analysed episodes is that such these hard-won
lessons may have the power to change how we build health and care for years to come. Alongside the challenges and traumas experienced during the pandemic, beside high levels of fear
among people, these are the reasons for hope, in the way that many international organizations have been claiming in the past decades, demonstrating that to tackle effectively public
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
5
health emergencies it is not enough just to bridge the divide between health and social care.
Conversely, to gain health we need that communities have been collaborating, partnering, and
supporting each other to do what one sector could never do as effectively on its own. Such
complex reasoning appears even more relevant now that the dominant discussion issue is the
vaccination.
Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
6
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©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
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Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
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Academia Letters, December 2021
©2021 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Valentina Possenti, valentina.possenti@iss.it
Citation: Possenti, V., Serra, D. (2021). Narrating the COVID-19 Pandemic by Medical Drama: the Case of
Grey’s Anatomy. Academia Letters, Article 4456. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4456.
9