COVID-19 pandemic

It was inevitable that films would be made about this significant chapter in global history, in part because a small group of people enduring an extended stay in their own homes is about the only scenario it's safe and logistically possible to actually shoot right now. But did the results have to start arriving while we're all still stuck in this nightmare?

—A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club, "The star-powered COVID drama Locked Down is nearly as annoying as, well, lockdown"

The COVID-19 pandemic (December 2019 - ) is a worldwide pandemic brought about by the spread of the "severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" family of viruses. It brought society to a near standstill in the early months of 2020. The Other Wiki goes into far more detail about this pandemic than we could ever hope to manage.

This page is about the pandemic's effect on popular culture.

Works where the COVID-19 pandemic plays a major role include:

Film

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm claims the pandemic was Borat's fault.
Songbird, produced by Michael Bay, is set In a World that has been under lockdown for four years because of "COVID-23".

Literature

Averted by Stephen King when he changed the setting of his 2021 novel Billy Summers from 2020 to 2019 so that it could take place on a cruise ship.

Live-Action TV

Medical dramas and medical comedies of the early 2020s, including The Good Doctor and Grey's Anatomy, made repeated mentions of the pandemic.