The hospital leadership team was anxiously discussing the potential rate of personal protective equipment usage, and the likelihood of an N95 mask shortage. I had started carrying a pocket-sized journal to capture not only details I needed to keep straight in the rapidly changing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) landscape, but also a place to sketch and jot down ideas. I had previously drawn and painted an image of the earth transformed into a giant coronavirus virion, the planet covered in COVID-19. As the meeting went on, way past its appointed time, I drew an outline of Atlas carrying a globe, with a viral substitution for his usual burden. I thought about how pandemics have shaped our world, from the Plague of Athens to the Black Death. When it came time to get out my acrylics after a long week in the hospital, the concept had evolved into the painting that accompanies this editorial (Figure).
In Greek mythology, Atlas, who was a Titan, fought on the losing side in the battle against Zeus and the other gods of Olympus. In the inventive way of divine punishment—which sentenced his fellow Titan, Prometheus, to having an eagle consume his ever-regenerating liver—Atlas was doomed to shoulder the weight of the celestial globe, a burden that is frequently depicted instead as the planet Earth. Over the centuries, this image of Atlas with the globe has come to mean the stoic bearing of a heavy load—like the load physicians and healthcare staff currently bear in navigating COVID-19.
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-Jamie Newman, MD, MHA, MACP
