The erasure of COVID by the entertainment industry has played a huge role in sanctioning government abandonment of public health. Creatives are complicit in the ongoing harm caused by COVID. What a difference it would make if they actively portrayed the pandemic in their work.
I mean, that would be an extremely short story! Like 4 panels. And having it solved so easily in fiction would probably do more harm than good. It would trivialize Covid. Some young readers wouldn't take the virus seriously in real life.
The thing that kicks me is that Hollywood didn't ignore Covid- they really locked down protocols on how they operated...and the thing they did that most normal places of employment act like they can't do- made masking and distancing a standard part of how they worked.
Meanwhile I gotta contest with Brad & Becky who have the capacity to work from home but refuse to do so coz either they can't stand being around the rest of their family or they're bored...so they bring their asses into the office, coughing up a storm and spreading who knows what
same with climate change. you can gesture towards it, like when Storm and Iceman cooled the Arctic or w/e, but showing a fantasy solution to a real problem seems more harmful than just avoiding it entirely.
