Review: Pandemic How to Prevent an Outbreak
Illustration via Netflix
An invisible enemy threatens the globe and tests if the world is equipped to confront it. The equation presented in this docuseries: “Detect the case, isolate the case, then stop the chain of transmission.”
It sounds simple, but this documentary reveals every single battle that the front-line teams need to overcome, in order to save lives. A societal disruption in the Netflix docuseries, “Pandemic How to Prevent an Outbreak,” portrays how the steadiness of health services is endangered and normal infrastructure gets under attack. In addition, unexpected susceptibilities like lack of food supplies occur when a killer version of flu reappears and threatens human lives.
“I think the series couldn’t have come at a more crucial time with the recent COVID19 outbreak. The series premiered in January, but with the recent coronavirus crisis it has been pushed into Netflix’s ‘Top 10 shows,’ " said TV and film producer Mando Stathi (The American Runestone).
Vasileios Christopoulos, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California (UCR) said “it is important to stay home. Because we are facing a very aggressive and fast-moving virus, in which we do not have herd immunity, and there is no vaccine or treatment.”
The current COVID-19 reality parallels “Pandemic” closely, showing how people die from a form of influenza and what would happen if it was allowed to spread globally. According to the documentary, millions of lives could be lost.
However, “resources for early detection are limited,” says the docuseries which was released on Netflix on January 8, in tandem with the threats of COVID-19 becoming global.
Stathi deems “the series is really informative and truly inspiring with a range of characters from scientists and doctors to disaster experts, trying to get the hospital system ready for a deadly pandemic and create a global one-shot flu vaccine available for free to people in developing countries.”
In the documentary Dennis Carroll, Director of Emerging Threats Unit U.S. Agency for International Development said, “Influenza and respiratory viruses are the ones that you’re most concerned about, in terms of being able to spread rapidly from one human to another and spread around the world very quickly.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1918’s influenza pandemic was one of the most lethal pandemics in history, caused by a virus called H1N1. World War I (WWI) soldiers spread the virus as they returned home from around the world.
The documentary briefly shares the lethal story that “far more people died in the 18-month period of that flu than died in all of WWI and World War II (WWII).”
While “Pandemic” boasts the world with 7.8 billion people, a virus like the one in 1918 would result in hundreds of millions of deaths. Dr. Syra Madad, the Senior Director of New York City’s Health System, assured audiences, “special pathogens don’t respect any people’s boundaries.”
Christopoulos said “the pandemics of the past, such as the 1981 influenza pandemic, or H1N1 influenza in 2009 gave us important insights to understand how we can stop the spread of the virus before it gets out of control.”
This docuseries touches vaccination matters that have long been battled legislatively. While pro-vaccine advocates believe that all children must be required to receive vaccinations in order to attend any school, anti-vaccine advocates do not feel comfortable with them and believe “my body my rules,” according to Caylan Wagar, mother of five children. Wagar from Oregon, homeschools all of her children and has not vaccinated them. “The focus of my life is to allow my kids to be who they are,” Wagar said.
The efforts toward creating an affordable vaccination to fight flu season continue and “fortunately, there are some amazing people who dedicate their life to this,” said Bill Gates in the documentary, who contributes to science for vaccines through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.“As we’ve seen various flu scares, we haven’t had a super good response. And it’s pretty surprising how little preparedness there is for it,” said Gates.
People in breathing masks, lying in hospital beds with body aches and ventilators, rely immensely on these front-line doctors and scientists for creating cures. It seems as if science and prayers go hand-to-hand in the docuseries as they are preparing to fight back an invisible enemy.
Dr. Jake Glanville, Founding Partner and Chief Science Officer said “if we really are serious about creating cures, and vaccines can be cures, unlike many other types of medicine, then we need to finish the job and the way to do that is to subsidize its release globally.”
Although scientists from the past said “hey, you’re never gonna get to the Moon. No one’s done it before,” according to Dr. Glanville “those voices will always be wrong because humans are moving towards a greater future.”
As Dr. Madad puts it: “We are all in it together.”
