Covid is an even better parallel to the Chernobyl disaster because it's a truth of nature. As the character Legasov elaborates during his soliloquy in the show, "The truth doesn't care about lies." A virus goes right on infecting and killing people even if people choose to believe lies that it's not real or not dangerous. In fact, exactly like an exploded nuclear power plant spewing radiation, it's MORE dangerous when people are lied to (or lie to themselves) about it because they don't know to take critical safety precautions.