"Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak” is a six-part documentary series currently streaming on Netflix about the prevention of pandemic outbreaks. For this review, I have chosen two specific episodes to discuss, as they include ideas particularly in- spiring at this time when COVID-19 is causing world panic. As I see it, the docuseries is intended to impress upon the audience the global need for pandemic prevention and highlight the efforts to overcome the challenges in successfully achieving this. As well as using maps and data to show the universal impact of a pandemic outbreak, the film team travels to different parts of the world, bringing viewers into the fields and laboratories where scientific research is being done, and to quarantined areas where strict government measures are in place to try to break the transmission chain.
“Pandemic is now” (episode 2) focuses on the challenges involved in implementing vaccination programs. One challenge is from the strong opposition to a Vaccination Bill aimed at eliminating non-medical vaccine exemptions for school children in Oregon. Among the protesters is a mother of five children, who, when interviewed, questions the vaccine’s safety standards and asserts her right to decide what is best for her own children. Conversely, Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, an Oregon state senator, argues that the measures in the Bill, though tough, are necessary, as immunizing the children is like protecting them when crossing the road at a red light. She notes that if people are hesitant about getting vaccinated, this could lead to the possibility of a pandemic outbreak, which would be a threat to the whole world.
In addition to protecting the children, a vaccination program, if well accepted, also serves to prevent human-to-human transmission of viruses. This is why refugees held in US custody at the Mexican border in Tucson are vaccinated before being granted a permit to settle down in the country.
The WHO Health Vaccination Program aimed at stopping the transmission of the Ebola virus is not so well accepted in Goma city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The communities there, each with an established hierarchy not easy to cut through, are often suspicious of vaccines because they believe that getting vaccinated could actually result in them dying from the disease they are trying to prevent. Adding to the problems is the frequent threat of armed attacks against the Ebola vacci- nation teams working in the war zone. Moreover, the program is hampered by the fact that vaccines cannot be mass produced fast enough to beat the quickly mutating virus.
Trust, therefore, is essential to the acceptability of a vaccine. Efforts are directed towards the development of a universal flu vaccine that can provide broader protection against different classes of the influenza virus. Achieving
this, according to Jacob Glanville, the president of Distributed Bio, a biotech company, would be a biotechnology revolution, a dream to strive for. Accordingly, researchers test the vaccines on pigs available in Guatemala at a com- paratively low cost, and they have achieved some encour- aging results.
Episode 3 – “Seek, don’t hide” – focuses on the efforts to track down the origin of viruses, as this can enable scientists to move from being reactive to proactive – to predict and prepare.
The docuseries directs specific attention to the issue of avian flu viruses, especially in densely populated regions. To broaden the surveillance strategy, field teams are sent out to look for emerging threats, from wildlife to livestock, and then to humans. The researchers collect blood samples from ducks to see if they have a pandemic potential when added to human blood samples in laboratory tests. Likewise, influenza viruses are tracked in both wild and domesticated animals throughout the Middle East before they mutate.
Such surveillance studies have led to valuable findings. Bats have been proven to be a reservoir the flu virus, while raising livestock at unprecedented levels is deemed a culprit behind the spread. Alarmingly, animal caretak- ers are the most vulnerable population for an epidemic to start. Moreover, the seasonality of viruses entails the anticipation of the trends of birds, as huge bird migrations can trigger virus transmission.
As viewers of Pandemic, we get to meet the heroes – the scientists and medical professionals – in scenes that capture both their work and private lives. Every research project is seen as a positive learning opportunity for the re- searchers as well as the students working with them. Like-wise, young scientists are also motivated by the chance to try new things not tested before in the laboratory. However, overworked and inadequately funded, medical staff are under tremendous stress, and some are shown resorting to reading the Bible and attending spiritual gatherings for strength and consolation.
On the whole, this informative docuseries casts light on scientific and medical knowledge comprehensible to the average viewer. Attention is also drawn to the issue that, when it comes to viruses, “anything can affect any country and any country can affect other countries”, thus raising an awareness about the rapid and widespread impact of a pandemic outbreak. In fact, it teaches a moral lesson and ends with the advice of Dr. Dennis Carroll, di- rector of USAID’s Emerging Threats Unit, that as nothing is eternal – we have to change the way we live on this planet to avoid the worst consequences of change.
I recommend this docu-series enthusiastically, especially to people with curious questions about the large amount of information circulating online about viruses these days.
