Grey's Anatomy's top medical expert: "COVID is No. 1 on the call sheet"

The Hollywood Reporter

Zoanne Clack is a doctor, Grey's Anatomy writer and executive producer who's been with the show since the beginning. She also spent a year working with the CDC. That's why she ensured coronavirus is a top priority this season. "We were definitely concerned about COVID fatigue from the audience: living with COVID news day-to-day and watching it on a fictional show was a hard barrier to cross," she says. "But talking to front-line health care workers pushed us forward onto our current path." Clack adds: "This pandemic is the single-biggest medical story of our time and likely a permanent game-changer as to how we practice medicine and how we look at the world. Being a medical show that focuses on our doctors' professional and private lives and one that takes great pride in being a voice for the voiceless and understanding that responsibility, we felt compelled to tell the stories of loneliness, fear and bravery that our health care workers and the patients are going through. Of course, we were scared that people would not want to go through the misery of COVID once more, but I think we've found a nice balance of keeping a Grey's vibe on the episodes. It's not all COVID, all the time, but COVID is always the backdrop. As I've heard people say, COVID is No. 1 on the call sheet."