How ER would've handled coronavirus

E! Online

Former ER executive producer Neal Baer, a practicing physician who was responsible for Designated Survivor's pandemic storyline last year, tells E! News: "The closest we came to a pandemic in the first seven years of ER, when I was a writer/producer, was in 'Exodus,' an episode featuring the late Mickey Rooney. The ER was evacuated owing to a benzene spill. If we were to do the show today, I'd pitch that everyone in the ER would undergo an antibody test to see who has already been exposed to Covid-19 and has recovered. We'd find out that Ross (George Clooney), Carter (Noah Wyle), and their nemesis, Weaver, (Laura Innes), all had caught Covid-19 but were asymptomatic. They'd be on the front lines since it's unlikely that they'd contract it again. They'd have their typical triage arguments, the electricity would go out, and they'd all take turns bagging patients together, since the generators are being used in the ICU and OR. Of course their personal stories would come out as they're sitting together huddled over patients, bagging them. We'd see Ross and Weaver hand-in-hand saving the patient and they'd reveal something deeply personal to each other (you'll have to watch the episode to learn their secrets!)."