With Covid-19 transforming our daily lives, it was inevitable that our entertainment would eventually catch up and reflect those changes. Television, movies, and video games are beginning to depict a world impacted by the pandemic.

In the season premiere of the long-running medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, the show mainly focused on Covid-19 and how it has affected the staff of Grey Sloan Memorial. “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” the first episode of season 17, focused on how Meredith and her interns were extremely overwhelmed with dying patients, one resident Andrew Deluca and his struggle with mania, and how the hospital is now operating due to Covid. Throughout the episode, audiences are shown many things happening within the dramatized hospital that they likely saw in the news regarding the state of real hospitals back in April and March of 2020. Grey Sloan experiences shortages of masks, gloves, and face shields, whole wings were converted to Covid wings, less severe Covid patients were sent home to self quarantine because the hospital was too full, and zero pressure rooms. All of these things happened to real hospitals as well, reflecting the real-life severity of the situation in the pandemic’s early months. However, a shortage of ventilators was not mentioned as nearly as often as one would expect, which may not have been as broadcasted of an issue at the time of the episode’s writing.

While shows like Grey’s Anatomy are reflecting the past and present of the pandemic, last month’s movie Songbird predicts its horrifying future. In a world where Covid-23, a fictional mutation of the real-life coronavirus, has forced the world to develop deadly quarantine camps and cell phone temperature checks, Songbird depicts a bleak future where government restrictions are violently enforced, and people are suffering to fight an unrelenting, mutating virus. However, while many viewers are pleased to see shows like Grey’s Anatomy depict the current situation realistically, perhaps they are not as prepared to see pessimistic predictions in media like Songbird. Reviews for the film have been mostly negative, with some critics calling the film “irresponsible” and “bad.”

Video games are changing to reflect the pandemic, too. In Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2, a remake of the best-selling skateboarding simulators, players can create their own skateboarding characters and customize them with skater gear and clothes. Among these accessories, players can find something not found in the original games: a disposable face mask. The pandemic has impacted the environments as well, with the School level being updated to feature a large television kiosk announcing school closures, and telling students to stay healthy and motivated during distance learning, while the skies of the Venice Beach level now house messenger planes reminding players to “wash your hands.”

With the long term development cycles of creative media beginning to catch up to the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s easy to imagine that we’ll be seeing the coronavirus reflected in our media in different ways for as long as the pandemic continues, and perhaps beyond.