Do pandemics in fiction still work?

Will there be more, or fewer, stories about pandemics? Zombie plagues, viruses, insect swarms, whatever? They might be too close to home. Now that we’ve seen the impact of what is, ultimately, a “minor” pandemic. We might be less keen to be reminded of our vulnerability.

Fictional plagues kill almost everyone. Stories are usually set in the aftermath, not during a collapse. I was always curious, morbidly, about that “during” period. A setting that comes after a plague or apocalyptic even is merely a fictional world. A story during a plague is much closer to connection with real life. Even closer than we thought, so it turns out.

My guess, the response in the media portrayals, in entertainment, might lean towards more hopeful outcomes. Positive portrayals of people overcoming odds to triumph. Less of the grinding despair that one might get from fiction like The Walking Dead. We’ll have more heroic stories. Possibly with an unhealthy nationalistic bent. But hopefully more focused on the triump of human spirit and ingenuity.