Why The Pitt Should Feature A Frontliner Who Has Long COVID in Season 3

Medical dramas can highlight Americans health realities, whether that be workplace violence or Long COVID, which affects a disproportinate number of frontliners.

This winter, when the third season of the Pitt airs, I'm betting COVID (as well as other viruses and vaccine controversies) will be all over the news. Medical storytelling, whether through shows like The Pitt or the classic ER, are a powerful way to highlight healthcare issues that often go unnoticed by most Americans, raising awareness and even reducing stigma.

In Season 2 of HBO MAX's The Pitt, Wyle and co-directors/writers focused the public's attention on workplace violence against health care and social service workers. When Nurse Dana is attacked outside the hospital, she puts a face to the many women who are five times more likely to be physically assaulted on the job than other workers.

Next season, Noah Wyle has said that he will feature a man he met during a 2012 protest against Medicaid cuts who has Muscular Dystrophy and is affiliated with the disability advocacy group ADAPT.

Wyle faced his own mental health issues, including suicidal ideation, in the final episodes. Suffering from burnout and what is often referred to as moral injury, the season ended with Wyle's character going on sabbatical after suffering a mental breakdown. Wyle has said the show's creators crafted The Pitt into what he describes as a 'love letter' to frontline workers, who show up time and again for strangers on the worst days of their lives.

What's on my bucket list of healthcare issues to be highlighted in Season 3? Long COVID, of course, not because it affects more than 17 million Americans in the U.S., but also an outsize number of frontliners, exposed to the virus multiple times doing their job. One study from the U.K. shows 1 in 4 nurses, particularly people of color, are living with Long COVID. The number isn't tracked as closely in the U.S. but it's reasonable to assume the number is high, and has led to huge numbers of trained medical experts leaving the workforce due to chronic illness, both mental and physical. The Pitt has the opportunity to show what acute COVID and Long COVID can do to people's finances, health care, health coverage, and family relationships—and hopefully, squash years of disbelief and misinformation patients face daily.