Heroism and Healthcare Workers in Epidemic Films

Synonyms

Epidemic cinema; Epidemic heroes; Pandemic heroes; Public health workers

Definition

The portrayal of public health workers as heroes is common in epidemic film history. While often characterized through the motif of underappreciated professionalism and self-sacrifice, some of the depicted heroic qualities of doctors and medics revolve around showing a “human” side of themselves, which brings them closer to the ordinary communities in which they work.

The fight against outbreaks of epidemic disease in many societies has often led to the veneration of heroism within public health work (Atlani-Duault et al. 2020), including figures that could arguably be considered as “elites” or “authorities” such as doctors, scientists, epidemiologists, and bacteriologists, but also others less likely to be considered “elites” such as nurses, care givers, midwives, and vaccination and transportation staff. In this short contribution, we consider the extent to which this is also a...