Plague Doctor returns to Fortnite for first time since COVID pandemic

Sinister skin returns to Fortnite store

The sinister Plague Doctor skin has returned to the in-game store of Epic Games’ juggernaut battle royale title, Fortnite. The purchasable costume has been conspicuous by its absence since January 2020, notably the same timeframe that saw the growing status of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

As noted by Eurogamer, the “Scourge” and “Plague” skins have made frequent appearances in Fortnite’s rotational shop since their 2018 debut, available to purchase for 1500 V-Bucks each. But both outfits have been missing for two years, finally making a reappearance in-store earlier this week. The skins depict the frightening, beaked “plague doctors” of the 16th century, who would fill the beaked masks with herbal remedies in an effort to stave off infection as they visited the slums of working-class patients.

While Epic Games never made any open statement as to the reasoning behind the costume’s removal, it’s not hard to imagine that somebody might have thought it a wise and prudent move to not fill the world’s most popular video game with Plague Doctors during a period of global sickness.

The COVID-19 pandemic is, of course, very much still with us, but enough time has passed that many companies and communities are readjusting to a “Post-COVID” status, though it should be clearly noted that the coronavirus and its variants are still infecting hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. In total, some 13.2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered since 2020.

Fortnite’s long-lost plague doctor returns, missing since Covid [Eurogamer]