In the spring of 2020, praising front-line health-care workers was all the rage. Many of these too-often-underpaid heroes were putting in daunting hours, quarantining from their children and loved ones and, in some cases, dying from the very pandemic they were trying to stop; praising them was the least we could do. People rigged up homemade masks so that doctors and nurses could get the real thing. Little Caesars flooded hospitals with pizzas, Krispy Kreme plied them with free doughnuts, and artists celebrated the medical community on magazine covers and city walls.
The art was overwhelmingly positive, fueled by hope: Our country might be shutting down, but at least we were getting along.