Epidemias en series médicas: enfermedades, profesionales sanitarios y dilemas bioéticos

Abstract

Probably, the year 2020 will be remembered as “the year of coronavirus”. SARS-CoV-2 global epidemic has hitting countries around the world since December 2019 marking a before and an after in the daily lives of many people. To prevent the spread of the virus, restrictions, quarantines and lockdowns have been imposed like never before. Faced with this unprecedented and disruptive reality, we come up to a privileged source to analyze and learn about the epidemic: cinema and TV series. In particular, medical dramas allow viewers to enter into the hospital world and meet different representations of health professionals. In this paper we present the description and analysis of six episodes of medical dramas where an epidemic is portrayed as the central theme: ER, Grey's Anatomy, House MD, The Good Doctor, New Amsterdam and The Resident. The representation of the disease and the epidemic is often mysterious and dangerous, and professionals are portrayed as heroes willing to sacrifice their own health for the sake of their patients. Bioethical issues are related to informed consent and the influence of personal issues of professionals in the patients’ treatment.