ABSTRACT
A pandemic is a moment in which the overlap of the cultural and natural dimensions of reality becomes visible. Viruses, invisible in society, become the major players for a period of time, forcing the public to come to terms with them as agents. The authors use the constructionist framework to analyze the media’s portrayal of SARS-CoV-2 at two phases of the pandemic timeline in the USA: before closing and at the reopening of society. The authors use 350 articles, sampled from across the political bias spectrum and coded for themes describing the virus as an active agent. These codes were synthesized into categories that illustrate the process of how a novel virus reshapes the historical disease landscape through naturalization, humanization, demedicalization, and acceptance of the conjoint constitution of viruses. © 2021 selection and editorial matter, J. Michael Ryan;individual chapters, the contributors.