1 00:00:03,338 --> 00:00:05,549 LANCE REDDICK: Deadly diseases that strike without warning 2 00:00:05,674 --> 00:00:07,842 and spread across the planet. 3 00:00:07,968 --> 00:00:11,680 BRYAN WALSH: The Black Death killed millions upon millions of people. 4 00:00:11,805 --> 00:00:14,683 DR. RAJ DASGUPTA: Almost like a zombie death. 5 00:00:14,766 --> 00:00:18,436 REDDICK: Lethal biological weapons of mass destruction. 6 00:00:18,562 --> 00:00:22,857 MARK KORTEPETER: Anthrax, botulism, tularemia, 7 00:00:22,941 --> 00:00:25,819 I call them "the chess pieces of doom." 8 00:00:25,902 --> 00:00:28,113 REDDICK: And mysterious viruses 9 00:00:28,238 --> 00:00:31,700 that may rival the worst plagues in history. 10 00:00:31,783 --> 00:00:36,746 Hopefully, we'll conquer whatever happens together. 11 00:00:36,871 --> 00:00:38,790 Throughout human history, 12 00:00:38,873 --> 00:00:43,503 deadly pandemics have arisen, devastating local populations 13 00:00:43,628 --> 00:00:46,089 before spreading across the entire world, 14 00:00:46,214 --> 00:00:49,426 crippling economies, destroying societies 15 00:00:49,551 --> 00:00:52,178 and leaving mass death in their wake. 16 00:00:52,304 --> 00:00:56,141 Are these global pandemics simply acts of God, 17 00:00:56,224 --> 00:00:58,810 caused by natural forces beyond our control? 18 00:00:58,893 --> 00:01:01,730 Or does mankind bear much of the blame, 19 00:01:01,855 --> 00:01:05,775 as well as hold the key to the ultimate cure? 20 00:01:05,900 --> 00:01:08,903 Perhaps the truth can be found 21 00:01:09,029 --> 00:01:13,825 in America's Book of Secrets. 22 00:01:13,908 --> 00:01:16,077 ♪ ♪ 23 00:01:30,759 --> 00:01:34,346 March 11, 2020. 24 00:01:34,471 --> 00:01:36,890 The World Health Organization announces that 25 00:01:37,015 --> 00:01:39,017 the outbreak of COVID‐19, 26 00:01:39,100 --> 00:01:42,270 also known as the novel coronavirus, 27 00:01:42,395 --> 00:01:45,315 has become a global pandemic. 28 00:01:48,068 --> 00:01:50,362 As the number of cases and deaths caused by 29 00:01:50,487 --> 00:01:53,948 the lethal virus surge higher and higher, 30 00:01:54,074 --> 00:01:58,578 day after day, countries around the world 31 00:01:58,703 --> 00:02:00,205 struggle to provide care 32 00:02:00,288 --> 00:02:05,043 for the unprecedented wave of patients that need treatment. 33 00:02:05,168 --> 00:02:08,380 The COVID‐19 pandemic is, honestly, 34 00:02:08,505 --> 00:02:12,008 the biggest public health emergency of our lifetimes. 35 00:02:12,050 --> 00:02:15,387 And it has been sobering to see how quickly a disease like that 36 00:02:15,512 --> 00:02:17,347 can spread around the world. 37 00:02:18,598 --> 00:02:20,475 DASGUPTA: I go to work and I see a line 38 00:02:20,558 --> 00:02:22,936 outside of the emergency department. 39 00:02:23,061 --> 00:02:26,564 When there's not enough ICU nurses, respiratory therapists, 40 00:02:26,690 --> 00:02:31,361 even medications to help the patients who are suffering 41 00:02:31,403 --> 00:02:33,822 from novel coronavirus. 42 00:02:33,905 --> 00:02:36,574 KORTEPETER: The hospitals become overwhelmed, 43 00:02:36,700 --> 00:02:40,453 and so the patients who need the care for COVID 44 00:02:40,578 --> 00:02:42,706 may not get the best care. 45 00:02:42,831 --> 00:02:45,166 And in addition, all the other patients who need care 46 00:02:45,250 --> 00:02:48,294 may not be cared for appropriately. 47 00:02:48,378 --> 00:02:49,963 DASGUPTA: When a pandemic starts, 48 00:02:50,046 --> 00:02:52,799 so many people are going to be infected. 49 00:02:52,882 --> 00:02:56,386 And unfortunately, many people will suffer and die. 50 00:02:56,511 --> 00:03:00,140 So, being on the front lines, 51 00:03:00,223 --> 00:03:03,268 I realized what a pandemic can do 52 00:03:03,393 --> 00:03:07,939 to so many people, my colleagues and myself. 53 00:03:08,064 --> 00:03:09,816 REDDICK: By October of 2020, 54 00:03:09,899 --> 00:03:13,987 more than one million people had died from COVID‐19 55 00:03:14,070 --> 00:03:17,198 worldwide, making it the worst pandemic 56 00:03:17,282 --> 00:03:19,868 in more than a century. 57 00:03:19,951 --> 00:03:23,580 The devastation caused by this disease is a sobering reminder 58 00:03:23,705 --> 00:03:27,876 of the dire threat posed by viruses. 59 00:03:27,959 --> 00:03:30,003 (coughing) 60 00:03:30,128 --> 00:03:32,255 KIRSTEN FISHER: A virus is an intracellular parasite 61 00:03:32,338 --> 00:03:37,677 that enters a host and basically hijacks 62 00:03:37,761 --> 00:03:39,596 the host cell's machinery 63 00:03:39,721 --> 00:03:44,517 to create more viral proteins and more viral particles, 64 00:03:44,642 --> 00:03:46,478 and it spreads itself that way. 65 00:03:48,438 --> 00:03:50,273 DASGUPTA: They take over our cells. 66 00:03:50,356 --> 00:03:52,984 They use our own bodies to reproduce. 67 00:03:53,067 --> 00:03:55,361 And then they'll cause destruction 68 00:03:55,445 --> 00:03:57,614 in many of the organs in our body. 69 00:03:57,739 --> 00:04:00,241 KORTEPETER: With COVID‐19, we were dealing with something 70 00:04:00,366 --> 00:04:02,368 completely new, and so I think there's a lot 71 00:04:02,494 --> 00:04:04,579 of lessons learned we have here. 72 00:04:04,662 --> 00:04:07,207 I think we learned how important it is 73 00:04:07,290 --> 00:04:09,626 to have rapid diagnostics. 74 00:04:09,751 --> 00:04:12,128 I wrote an article not too long ago about 75 00:04:12,212 --> 00:04:14,380 the military battlefield lessons. 76 00:04:14,506 --> 00:04:17,091 We talk about the war against COVID. 77 00:04:17,217 --> 00:04:20,094 You need to have intelligence preparation the battlefield. 78 00:04:20,220 --> 00:04:22,514 You need to know what's the battle space. 79 00:04:22,597 --> 00:04:24,516 The entire U. S. is a battle space. 80 00:04:24,641 --> 00:04:27,393 You need to deny the enemy conceal and cover. 81 00:04:27,519 --> 00:04:28,228 How do you do that? 82 00:04:28,353 --> 00:04:30,897 You do that with diagnostics. 83 00:04:31,731 --> 00:04:35,193 REDDICK: As the COVID‐19 virus raged across the globe, 84 00:04:35,318 --> 00:04:38,279 and nations joined in an unprecedented effort 85 00:04:38,404 --> 00:04:39,197 to contain it, 86 00:04:39,322 --> 00:04:41,699 the answer to one daunting question 87 00:04:41,783 --> 00:04:45,411 proved both mysterious and elusive: 88 00:04:45,537 --> 00:04:49,874 just exactly where did this virus come from? 89 00:04:49,958 --> 00:04:52,669 The best science that we have says that 90 00:04:52,710 --> 00:04:57,173 the virus that causes COVID‐19 probably started in animals 91 00:04:57,257 --> 00:04:59,717 somewhere in China. 92 00:04:59,801 --> 00:05:01,177 Might have been a bat, might have been 93 00:05:01,261 --> 00:05:04,389 some other type of animal. 94 00:05:04,514 --> 00:05:06,766 KORTEPETER: It's very likely, in my opinion, 95 00:05:06,891 --> 00:05:09,352 that this virus came probably from a bat, 96 00:05:09,477 --> 00:05:11,437 because we know there are multiple coronaviruses 97 00:05:11,563 --> 00:05:13,439 that circulate in bats. 98 00:05:13,565 --> 00:05:15,900 And then from there, it went to humans, 99 00:05:15,984 --> 00:05:19,320 and person to person spread and then amplified. 100 00:05:19,404 --> 00:05:22,073 I think, actually, what would help to solve 101 00:05:22,156 --> 00:05:23,867 this mystery is really to have 102 00:05:23,992 --> 00:05:28,788 an international, unbiased team that actually 103 00:05:28,913 --> 00:05:31,708 goes to try to trace back the origin of the virus 104 00:05:31,791 --> 00:05:34,502 back to that first patient zero. 105 00:05:34,586 --> 00:05:37,380 And that's the best way to solve this mystery. 106 00:05:37,505 --> 00:05:40,341 But we'll have to see whether that'll ever happen. 107 00:05:40,425 --> 00:05:44,304 Most human diseases that we're worried about 108 00:05:44,387 --> 00:05:46,806 actually start in animals. 109 00:05:46,890 --> 00:05:48,808 Some deadly viruses that infect humans, 110 00:05:48,892 --> 00:05:52,520 that have animal origins, are Ebola, smallpox, 111 00:05:52,645 --> 00:05:57,442 influenza, the virus that causes COVID‐19, 112 00:05:57,567 --> 00:06:01,988 rabies, Nipah virus, which causes encephalitis 113 00:06:02,071 --> 00:06:03,364 in some parts of the world. 114 00:06:03,448 --> 00:06:06,284 And, honestly, the list goes on and on. 115 00:06:06,409 --> 00:06:10,079 REDDICK: Despite the opinions of some that COVID‐19 spread 116 00:06:10,204 --> 00:06:12,540 from animals to humans, 117 00:06:12,665 --> 00:06:16,711 numerous experts, including Robert Redfield, the former head 118 00:06:16,836 --> 00:06:20,506 of the CDC, have begun to speculate that it may have 119 00:06:20,632 --> 00:06:24,594 escaped from an experimental lab in Wuhan, China. 120 00:06:24,719 --> 00:06:27,597 If that is the case, then just how could 121 00:06:27,722 --> 00:06:30,683 such a disastrous event occur? 122 00:06:30,767 --> 00:06:33,686 There are four ways a pathogen could escape, 123 00:06:33,770 --> 00:06:37,690 quote‐unquote, escape a lab. 124 00:06:37,774 --> 00:06:41,277 The first would be through some type of aerosol release 125 00:06:41,361 --> 00:06:42,403 through one of the vents 126 00:06:42,528 --> 00:06:44,948 into the atmosphere. 127 00:06:45,073 --> 00:06:48,534 The second is if an animal were infected, 128 00:06:48,660 --> 00:06:51,454 and then somehow got out of the lab. 129 00:06:51,537 --> 00:06:54,582 A third way would be if someone were intentionally 130 00:06:54,707 --> 00:06:57,669 to try to steal something and take it out of the lab. 131 00:06:57,752 --> 00:07:00,046 And then the fourth is that someone who's working 132 00:07:00,171 --> 00:07:03,716 in the laboratory gets inadvertently infected, 133 00:07:03,841 --> 00:07:05,593 and then they go out into the community 134 00:07:05,718 --> 00:07:08,137 not realizing they're potentially contagious. 135 00:07:08,221 --> 00:07:10,056 They get ill, they can spread it. 136 00:07:16,396 --> 00:07:20,733 REDDICK: President Donald J. Trump tests positive for COVID‐19, 137 00:07:20,858 --> 00:07:23,528 joining a growing list of world leaders 138 00:07:23,653 --> 00:07:26,739 infected by the potentially deadly virus. 139 00:07:26,864 --> 00:07:31,202 Although President Trump recovers within ten days, 140 00:07:31,327 --> 00:07:33,746 his exposure demonstrates the grave risk 141 00:07:33,871 --> 00:07:37,166 that diseases pose to heads of state. 142 00:07:37,250 --> 00:07:41,587 And, in fact, national security experts are increasingly 143 00:07:41,713 --> 00:07:45,008 concerned about the threat of pandemics 144 00:07:45,133 --> 00:07:49,679 being used as weapons. 145 00:07:49,762 --> 00:07:52,765 A bioweapon is an infectious disease agent, 146 00:07:52,849 --> 00:07:56,728 like a bacteria or a virus, that somebody chooses to use 147 00:07:56,853 --> 00:07:59,230 for what I call nefarious purposes. 148 00:07:59,355 --> 00:08:01,858 So it's something that they might grow 149 00:08:01,941 --> 00:08:04,610 and then try to expose people to, 150 00:08:04,736 --> 00:08:07,864 either to cause fear and panic, or to get people sick. 151 00:08:07,947 --> 00:08:12,577 There are certain properties that some pathogens have 152 00:08:12,702 --> 00:08:14,328 that lend themselves more favorably 153 00:08:14,412 --> 00:08:15,496 to serving as a weapon. 154 00:08:15,580 --> 00:08:17,665 So, something that's available, 155 00:08:17,749 --> 00:08:19,042 something that could be grown up 156 00:08:19,125 --> 00:08:20,376 in large quantities, 157 00:08:20,501 --> 00:08:22,837 something stable in the environment, 158 00:08:22,962 --> 00:08:25,339 such that it can be released over a large population, 159 00:08:25,465 --> 00:08:27,467 whether that's a battlefield 160 00:08:27,550 --> 00:08:32,055 or a city environment. 161 00:08:32,180 --> 00:08:34,682 The CDC calls them the category A threat agents. 162 00:08:34,807 --> 00:08:40,021 Things like anthrax, botulism, plague, 163 00:08:40,104 --> 00:08:42,523 tularemia, smallpox 164 00:08:42,607 --> 00:08:44,025 and viral hemorrhagic fevers. 165 00:08:44,108 --> 00:08:46,736 I call them "the chess pieces of doom." 166 00:08:46,861 --> 00:08:48,529 The case fatality rates for these 167 00:08:48,654 --> 00:08:49,655 different category A agents 168 00:08:49,739 --> 00:08:53,201 range from tularemia, with about 30% death rate, 169 00:08:53,326 --> 00:08:56,579 up to something like Ebola, which is 90% fatal 170 00:08:56,704 --> 00:08:59,207 without countermeasures. 171 00:08:59,332 --> 00:09:01,542 McQUISTON: Smallpox is a really interesting bioweapon 172 00:09:01,667 --> 00:09:03,211 because smallpox has been eradicated. 173 00:09:03,336 --> 00:09:05,129 It doesn't occur naturally anymore. 174 00:09:05,213 --> 00:09:07,840 But we also have a population of people who really 175 00:09:07,965 --> 00:09:09,509 have never been vaccinated against it, 176 00:09:09,592 --> 00:09:11,385 and that makes us really vulnerable. 177 00:09:11,511 --> 00:09:14,514 So smallpox is probably my number‐one worry, 178 00:09:14,597 --> 00:09:16,015 and then anthrax is my number two. 179 00:09:16,140 --> 00:09:19,143 Because there has been a previous bioterrorism event 180 00:09:19,227 --> 00:09:21,854 in the U. S. involving anthrax. 181 00:09:21,938 --> 00:09:25,942 In 2001, there was a bioterrorism attack 182 00:09:26,025 --> 00:09:27,693 on U. S. soil. 183 00:09:27,777 --> 00:09:30,154 The anthrax was spread in letters 184 00:09:30,238 --> 00:09:32,406 that were sent through the U. S. Post Office, 185 00:09:32,532 --> 00:09:35,159 and they got a lot of people sick. 186 00:09:36,869 --> 00:09:39,247 REDDICK: But just how likely is the prospect 187 00:09:39,372 --> 00:09:44,001 of a devastating virus being used as a bio‐weapon? 188 00:09:44,085 --> 00:09:46,838 There are those who claim that not only is it possible, 189 00:09:46,921 --> 00:09:50,842 but that it already happened centuries ago 190 00:09:50,925 --> 00:09:52,635 during the deadliest pandemic 191 00:09:52,718 --> 00:09:55,304 in recorded history. 192 00:10:07,900 --> 00:10:10,820 REDDICK: Health officials report that 11 victims have died 193 00:10:10,903 --> 00:10:12,738 from the bubonic plague. 194 00:10:14,740 --> 00:10:17,702 The government moves quickly to contain the outbreak, 195 00:10:17,743 --> 00:10:20,163 providing the sick with powerful antibiotics, 196 00:10:20,246 --> 00:10:23,708 a treatment that didn't exist 700 years ago, 197 00:10:23,749 --> 00:10:25,418 when the disease touched off 198 00:10:25,543 --> 00:10:29,755 the worst pandemic in history. 199 00:10:29,839 --> 00:10:32,508 The Black Death is really the pandemic that 200 00:10:32,592 --> 00:10:33,759 eclipses all others. 201 00:10:33,843 --> 00:10:36,679 I mean, it killed millions upon millions of people 202 00:10:36,804 --> 00:10:39,140 in medieval Europe beginning in the 14th century. 203 00:10:39,223 --> 00:10:43,144 HEATHER QUINLAN: The Black Death lasted from about 204 00:10:43,227 --> 00:10:47,940 1347 to 1349, 1350. 205 00:10:48,024 --> 00:10:51,861 Roughly a third of the European population died. 206 00:10:51,986 --> 00:10:54,322 Italy was devastated. 207 00:10:54,405 --> 00:10:58,117 England was, France was. 208 00:10:58,242 --> 00:11:01,913 The stories behind it, just, they send chills up my spine. 209 00:11:02,038 --> 00:11:06,542 It almost sounds like a‐an episode of‐of zombie death. 210 00:11:06,626 --> 00:11:12,256 Big, orange‐like balls on their hands and arms. 211 00:11:12,381 --> 00:11:15,092 The fingers were green. 212 00:11:15,176 --> 00:11:18,012 We know now that this was something called 213 00:11:18,095 --> 00:11:19,847 Yersinia pestis. 214 00:11:19,931 --> 00:11:22,141 This is a bacteria. 215 00:11:22,225 --> 00:11:25,937 So, it's easy for me to say now, it's Yersinia pestis. 216 00:11:26,020 --> 00:11:28,189 They didn't know that back then. 217 00:11:29,398 --> 00:11:30,858 REDDICK: Despite not understanding 218 00:11:30,900 --> 00:11:34,028 the exact mechanism by which the disease spread, 219 00:11:34,070 --> 00:11:37,073 people in the Middle Ages sensed that the Black Death 220 00:11:37,198 --> 00:11:40,701 could afflict anyone who came into contact with it. 221 00:11:41,619 --> 00:11:43,037 This knowledge gave rise 222 00:11:43,120 --> 00:11:44,914 to one of the earliest‐known examples 223 00:11:45,039 --> 00:11:50,795 of personal protective equipment, or PPE. 224 00:11:52,338 --> 00:11:55,299 QUINLAN: The plague doctor outfit was essentially 225 00:11:55,383 --> 00:11:57,718 a medieval hazmat suit. 226 00:11:57,802 --> 00:12:01,305 It had a kind of very hard covering 227 00:12:01,389 --> 00:12:06,852 so that the doctor wouldn't be sprayed with bodily fluids. 228 00:12:06,936 --> 00:12:10,856 And then there was a beak which was filled 229 00:12:10,982 --> 00:12:15,987 with flowers or herbs or anything that smelled nice 230 00:12:16,070 --> 00:12:19,991 to keep the stench of death away from the doctor. 231 00:12:20,074 --> 00:12:23,911 With the idea being that bad smells or miasma 232 00:12:23,995 --> 00:12:28,040 is really what was causing people to get sick. 233 00:12:28,124 --> 00:12:31,168 It was the best, uh, hypothesis they had. 234 00:12:31,252 --> 00:12:35,589 REDDICK: The Black Death, now known as the bubonic plague, 235 00:12:35,715 --> 00:12:39,760 has been studied by historians and scientists for centuries 236 00:12:39,885 --> 00:12:43,931 in order to better understand its destructive power. 237 00:12:44,015 --> 00:12:47,184 And it's a power that was actually unleashed 238 00:12:47,226 --> 00:12:49,895 on a medieval battlefield, becoming 239 00:12:50,021 --> 00:12:54,775 one of the earliest known forms of biological warfare. 240 00:13:01,407 --> 00:13:03,326 (men shouting) 241 00:13:06,245 --> 00:13:08,080 For three years, 242 00:13:08,164 --> 00:13:13,002 this port city on the Black Sea, part of the Republic of Genoa, 243 00:13:13,127 --> 00:13:16,964 as under siege from Mongolian Tatar invaders. 244 00:13:17,048 --> 00:13:20,217 This is an old walled city, and inside the city 245 00:13:20,343 --> 00:13:25,473 were Genoese, and Tatar invaders came and laid siege to the city. 246 00:13:25,556 --> 00:13:28,976 So, they surrounded the city, but then there was an outbreak 247 00:13:29,060 --> 00:13:32,355 of plague amongst the Tatars' ranks. 248 00:13:32,438 --> 00:13:36,067 The Mongol population was starting to get very sick. 249 00:13:36,192 --> 00:13:42,031 And whether this is a form of biochemical warfare, 250 00:13:42,073 --> 00:13:44,867 psychological warfare, both, 251 00:13:44,950 --> 00:13:50,748 what they ended up doing was catapulting the corpses 252 00:13:50,873 --> 00:13:53,376 of their people over the walls of Caffa 253 00:13:53,459 --> 00:13:57,254 and landing on the Genoese people repeatedly. 254 00:13:57,338 --> 00:14:00,383 And then the Genoese defenders eventually started having 255 00:14:00,466 --> 00:14:02,176 their own outbreaks of plague within the city. 256 00:14:02,218 --> 00:14:04,428 WALSH: The Black Death was actually used as kind of 257 00:14:04,553 --> 00:14:06,889 an early bioweapon, and that would be, actually, 258 00:14:07,014 --> 00:14:10,309 incredibly efficient, because a town under siege 259 00:14:10,393 --> 00:14:13,145 is a place where people are packed very closely together. 260 00:14:13,229 --> 00:14:15,523 So that disease could spread from dead bodies 261 00:14:15,564 --> 00:14:17,525 and spread to the defenders. 262 00:14:18,567 --> 00:14:21,195 REDDICK: The use of the Black Death in warfare 263 00:14:21,320 --> 00:14:24,198 underscores the deadly potential of a pandemic 264 00:14:24,281 --> 00:14:27,076 being utilized as a bioweapon. 265 00:14:27,159 --> 00:14:30,121 And today in the United States, 266 00:14:30,246 --> 00:14:32,373 it is a scenario that some believe 267 00:14:32,456 --> 00:14:35,292 the federal government must be ready for, 268 00:14:35,418 --> 00:14:38,254 now more than ever. 269 00:14:38,379 --> 00:14:40,256 If we had a very, very severe pandemic, 270 00:14:40,381 --> 00:14:42,341 one that was extremely deadly, much more so 271 00:14:42,425 --> 00:14:45,928 than what we face with COVID‐19, the continuity of government 272 00:14:46,053 --> 00:14:49,056 would be one of the biggest questions we'd have to face. 273 00:14:49,181 --> 00:14:52,184 The continuity of government apparatus is gigantic. 274 00:14:52,309 --> 00:14:57,148 We don't see it, but it's made up of the airplanes 275 00:14:57,231 --> 00:14:59,817 and the bunkers and the procedures 276 00:14:59,900 --> 00:15:02,611 for moving the successors to the presidency 277 00:15:02,736 --> 00:15:06,907 and the communication systems that nets it all together. 278 00:15:07,032 --> 00:15:12,163 It's a multibillion‐dollar a year operation. 279 00:15:12,246 --> 00:15:15,958 But that operation has really been created 280 00:15:16,041 --> 00:15:20,254 to deal with two very distinct scenarios: 281 00:15:20,379 --> 00:15:24,675 nuclear war or a terrorist attack on Washington. 282 00:15:24,758 --> 00:15:26,677 That's it. 283 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:28,929 And so, when coronavirus came along, 284 00:15:29,054 --> 00:15:31,849 I think that the people behind continuity of government 285 00:15:31,974 --> 00:15:33,976 didn't quite know what to do. 286 00:15:34,059 --> 00:15:38,522 This whole model had to basically be thrown away. 287 00:15:38,564 --> 00:15:41,275 If members of Congress got sick, if the president 288 00:15:41,400 --> 00:15:43,360 or the vice president got sick, 289 00:15:43,444 --> 00:15:45,154 if the successors to the presidency 290 00:15:45,237 --> 00:15:48,032 under the Constitution were unavailable, 291 00:15:48,073 --> 00:15:49,867 what exactly were the rules? 292 00:15:49,992 --> 00:15:52,953 It will be very interesting as we move forward 293 00:15:53,037 --> 00:15:55,748 in the world of emergency preparedness 294 00:15:55,873 --> 00:15:57,708 and continuity of government, 295 00:15:57,833 --> 00:16:00,419 whether they deal with a pandemic 296 00:16:00,503 --> 00:16:02,671 in a very different way. 297 00:16:02,755 --> 00:16:06,550 That's the challenge of the future. 298 00:16:07,760 --> 00:16:09,512 What would happen if a pandemic 299 00:16:09,595 --> 00:16:11,847 were to strike down a country's leader? 300 00:16:11,972 --> 00:16:14,433 Could it change the course of history? 301 00:16:14,558 --> 00:16:18,687 Some historians argue that it has already happened 302 00:16:18,812 --> 00:16:21,815 and helped to sow the seeds for the greatest war 303 00:16:21,899 --> 00:16:24,235 the world has ever known. 304 00:16:33,410 --> 00:16:37,790 REDDICK: Pathologist Dr. Johan Hultin excavates 305 00:16:37,915 --> 00:16:40,876 an indigenous village graveyard, searching for something 306 00:16:41,001 --> 00:16:43,837 that has eluded scientists for decades: 307 00:16:43,921 --> 00:16:48,092 the cause of the 1918 influenza pandemic, 308 00:16:48,217 --> 00:16:52,304 also known as the Spanish flu. 309 00:16:53,556 --> 00:16:58,185 Johan Hultin had heard about a town 310 00:16:58,269 --> 00:17:00,437 about 80 miles outside of Nome in Alaska 311 00:17:00,563 --> 00:17:02,106 called Brevig Mission, 312 00:17:02,231 --> 00:17:06,527 and it had had a population of about 80, 313 00:17:06,652 --> 00:17:10,531 of which almost all of them had been killed from the 1918 flu. 314 00:17:10,614 --> 00:17:16,203 So he got the approval to disinter 315 00:17:16,328 --> 00:17:19,748 some of the bodies in the hopes that the permafrost 316 00:17:19,832 --> 00:17:24,336 had preserved the flu virus and that they could research it. 317 00:17:24,461 --> 00:17:28,424 And he found the corpse of a woman 318 00:17:28,549 --> 00:17:33,053 who had been, uh, morbidly obese. 319 00:17:33,178 --> 00:17:36,515 But it was, in fact, not the permafrost 320 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:42,313 that preserved the virus, but her fat storage. 321 00:17:43,856 --> 00:17:46,233 DANIEL JERNIGAN: They removed some of that lung tissue, 322 00:17:46,358 --> 00:17:49,361 and from that, they were able to then send that to the CDC 323 00:17:49,486 --> 00:17:52,281 where we were able to understand it better, 324 00:17:52,364 --> 00:17:54,074 sequence the virus‐‐ that is, understand 325 00:17:54,199 --> 00:17:57,077 the genetic code of that virus. 326 00:17:57,202 --> 00:17:59,371 REDDICK: After successfully sequencing the virus 327 00:17:59,455 --> 00:18:01,498 that caused the Spanish flu, 328 00:18:01,582 --> 00:18:04,668 scientists were finally able to unlock the secrets 329 00:18:04,752 --> 00:18:09,673 of the most severe pandemic of the 20th century. 330 00:18:09,715 --> 00:18:13,260 So the virus was able to, uh, reproduce itself very quickly, 331 00:18:13,385 --> 00:18:16,347 um, and make the host sick very quickly as well. 332 00:18:16,430 --> 00:18:19,850 Um, and, also, very readily passed between people. 333 00:18:19,975 --> 00:18:24,271 But it was no one sort of magic bullet, I guess, if you will, 334 00:18:24,396 --> 00:18:26,440 that made it incredibly powerful. 335 00:18:26,523 --> 00:18:28,400 In fact, it was more like a perfect storm 336 00:18:28,525 --> 00:18:31,445 of all these different features when put together 337 00:18:31,528 --> 00:18:33,822 created this extremely virulent virus. 338 00:18:33,906 --> 00:18:37,409 JERNIGAN: It was referred to in 1918 as Purple Death. 339 00:18:37,493 --> 00:18:39,203 So, that was a terrible virus. 340 00:18:39,328 --> 00:18:41,955 We were able to recover it, understand it, 341 00:18:42,081 --> 00:18:45,584 and then from that we're able to make diagnostics, treatments 342 00:18:45,709 --> 00:18:47,544 and vaccines that can help prevent that 343 00:18:47,670 --> 00:18:49,672 from happening again. 344 00:18:49,755 --> 00:18:52,508 REDDICK: However, while thankfully, medical science 345 00:18:52,591 --> 00:18:55,427 has developed the technology to protect us 346 00:18:55,552 --> 00:19:00,015 from the Spanish flu today, when it first struck in 1918, 347 00:19:00,140 --> 00:19:02,935 it quickly spread across the globe, 348 00:19:03,018 --> 00:19:05,729 leaving millions dead in its wake. 349 00:19:05,854 --> 00:19:09,483 BARRY: The 1918 virus was much more dangerous, 350 00:19:09,566 --> 00:19:12,778 much more virulent than COVID‐19. 351 00:19:12,861 --> 00:19:14,405 People could die in as little 352 00:19:14,488 --> 00:19:16,865 as 12 hours after the first symptoms. 353 00:19:16,907 --> 00:19:23,163 In addition, the people who were dying were young. 354 00:19:23,247 --> 00:19:26,250 The peak age for death was in the 20s. 355 00:19:26,375 --> 00:19:30,170 Children were dying in enormous numbers. 356 00:19:30,295 --> 00:19:35,008 So 95% of the... or so of the excess mortality 357 00:19:35,134 --> 00:19:37,386 was people younger than 65. 358 00:19:37,511 --> 00:19:40,264 Exactly the opposite of today. 359 00:19:42,057 --> 00:19:44,893 The 1918 virus killed somewhere between 50 360 00:19:45,018 --> 00:19:46,562 and a hundred million people. 361 00:19:46,687 --> 00:19:49,148 If you adjust for population, that would be the equivalent 362 00:19:49,231 --> 00:19:54,695 of 225 to 450 million people today. 363 00:19:54,778 --> 00:19:59,575 In 1918, the U. S., of course, was at war, 364 00:19:59,700 --> 00:20:03,495 and the focus of the government was entirely 365 00:20:03,579 --> 00:20:06,498 on the war and nothing else. 366 00:20:06,582 --> 00:20:10,169 The government was quite willing, to put it bluntly, 367 00:20:10,294 --> 00:20:14,214 to lie and to put the best face on everything. 368 00:20:14,339 --> 00:20:16,592 Woodrow Wilson, the president, never even made 369 00:20:16,717 --> 00:20:21,346 any public statement of any kind about the pandemic. 370 00:20:21,388 --> 00:20:25,225 REDDICK: Woodrow Wilson may not have taken the pandemic seriously, 371 00:20:25,350 --> 00:20:28,395 but he was not immune to its effects. 372 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:30,981 Wilson contracted the influenza virus 373 00:20:31,064 --> 00:20:33,776 during the Paris Peace Conference 374 00:20:33,901 --> 00:20:36,528 at the end of World War I. 375 00:20:36,612 --> 00:20:40,240 QUINLAN: Woodrow Wilson had put together, 376 00:20:40,365 --> 00:20:42,868 uh, what were known as Fourteen Points 377 00:20:42,951 --> 00:20:45,913 toward the end of World War I, 378 00:20:46,038 --> 00:20:49,458 where the world leaders were meeting in Paris. 379 00:20:51,168 --> 00:20:54,463 And his Fourteen Points were essentially 380 00:20:54,546 --> 00:20:58,008 how we can work with Germany so something like this 381 00:20:58,091 --> 00:20:59,760 never happens again. 382 00:20:59,885 --> 00:21:05,432 And it was very progressive, especially for its day, 383 00:21:05,557 --> 00:21:07,392 and he really stood by it. 384 00:21:09,561 --> 00:21:13,524 Now, Woodrow Wilson also traveled to Paris 385 00:21:13,649 --> 00:21:16,819 on the same ship that had previously 386 00:21:16,902 --> 00:21:21,573 shipped many, many sick soldiers overseas. 387 00:21:21,698 --> 00:21:25,577 So while he was in Paris, Wilson became very sick. 388 00:21:25,702 --> 00:21:28,580 BARRY: Everybody around him remarked 389 00:21:28,705 --> 00:21:32,084 on how his mind was affected. 390 00:21:32,209 --> 00:21:36,547 How he couldn't function, he couldn't process information. 391 00:21:36,672 --> 00:21:38,549 Uh, he was physically weak. 392 00:21:38,674 --> 00:21:42,261 And he insisted on returning to the negotiations 393 00:21:42,386 --> 00:21:44,680 while he was still sick. 394 00:21:44,805 --> 00:21:46,723 REDDICK: During the peace talks, 395 00:21:46,849 --> 00:21:50,602 President Wilson had argued that America and its allies should 396 00:21:50,686 --> 00:21:55,399 not punish Germany by imposing a crippling war settlement. 397 00:21:55,524 --> 00:21:57,734 But due to his weakened condition, 398 00:21:57,860 --> 00:22:01,196 Wilson was unable to fight for a less severe punishment 399 00:22:01,321 --> 00:22:05,367 than the one ultimately brought against the nation of Germany. 400 00:22:05,492 --> 00:22:09,788 And the course of history was irrevocably altered. 401 00:22:09,913 --> 00:22:13,333 BARRY: Clemenceau, the French prime minister, hated Germany. 402 00:22:13,417 --> 00:22:15,294 Germany was blamed for the war, 403 00:22:15,377 --> 00:22:18,755 had reparations, had territory, uh, stripped from it. 404 00:22:18,881 --> 00:22:23,677 The peace treaty was so bad that almost every historian 405 00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:28,140 says that the treaty was a significant force 406 00:22:28,223 --> 00:22:30,058 in the rise of the Nazis, 407 00:22:30,183 --> 00:22:32,936 and leading to World War II. 408 00:22:33,020 --> 00:22:35,939 QUINLAN: You could definitely make an argument 409 00:22:36,064 --> 00:22:40,861 that it then led to a person like Adolf Hitler‐‐ 410 00:22:40,944 --> 00:22:45,073 charismatic, nationalist, 411 00:22:45,198 --> 00:22:48,160 dramatic‐‐ all the things that 412 00:22:48,243 --> 00:22:51,830 people who are suffering, 413 00:22:51,914 --> 00:22:54,750 who are poor, who are broke, who are starving 414 00:22:54,875 --> 00:22:58,921 can look to someone like that and see a potential leader. 415 00:22:59,922 --> 00:23:05,010 If the Spanish Flu of 1918 can teach mankind anything, 416 00:23:05,093 --> 00:23:07,930 it's to always be prepared. 417 00:23:08,055 --> 00:23:09,514 But how do we get ready? 418 00:23:09,598 --> 00:23:13,185 Some say that to battle future pandemics 419 00:23:13,310 --> 00:23:16,980 we would need to have an elite team monitoring the world 420 00:23:17,064 --> 00:23:18,482 for emerging diseases. 421 00:23:18,565 --> 00:23:20,692 They would race to the site of an outbreak, 422 00:23:20,776 --> 00:23:23,654 delivering vital on‐the‐ground information to scientists 423 00:23:23,737 --> 00:23:26,823 that could fast‐track treatments and vaccines. 424 00:23:26,907 --> 00:23:31,286 Well, it turns out such teams do exist, 425 00:23:31,411 --> 00:23:32,663 and they're known as 426 00:23:32,746 --> 00:23:35,499 the disease detectives. 427 00:23:46,218 --> 00:23:51,014 REDDICK: More than 2,000 U. S. military veterans gather 428 00:23:51,139 --> 00:23:53,308 at the Bellevue‐Stratford Hotel 429 00:23:53,392 --> 00:23:55,978 for an annual three‐day convention 430 00:23:56,061 --> 00:23:58,772 of the American Legion. 431 00:23:58,897 --> 00:24:03,443 In the days following the event, 182 of the legionnaires 432 00:24:03,568 --> 00:24:08,615 fall ill with a new, unidentified form of pneumonia. 433 00:24:08,740 --> 00:24:10,867 As doctors struggle to make sense of the mysterious 434 00:24:10,993 --> 00:24:16,081 illness, 29 people develop severe symptoms, 435 00:24:16,206 --> 00:24:17,708 and perish. 436 00:24:19,710 --> 00:24:21,670 It was an unexplained pneumonia. It didn't... 437 00:24:21,795 --> 00:24:22,963 We couldn't figure out what it was. 438 00:24:23,046 --> 00:24:25,132 None of the normal things that cause pneumonia 439 00:24:25,215 --> 00:24:27,843 turned out to be the cause. 440 00:24:27,926 --> 00:24:31,471 REDDICK: To solve the mystery, the Centers for Disease Control 441 00:24:31,555 --> 00:24:34,057 called upon America's first line of defense 442 00:24:34,182 --> 00:24:35,934 against emerging pandemics: 443 00:24:36,018 --> 00:24:39,187 the Epidemic Intelligence Service, 444 00:24:39,312 --> 00:24:41,982 or EIS. 445 00:24:42,065 --> 00:24:45,902 ERIC PEVZNER: The Epidemic Intelligence Service was established in 1951. 446 00:24:46,028 --> 00:24:49,031 And the reason why we came to be is that there were concerns 447 00:24:49,156 --> 00:24:53,368 about biological threats to the people of the United States. 448 00:24:53,493 --> 00:24:55,078 And so the program was put together so we'd have 449 00:24:55,203 --> 00:24:59,583 a workforce ready to deploy to investigate any possible 450 00:24:59,708 --> 00:25:02,794 biological threats against the United States. 451 00:25:02,878 --> 00:25:06,798 So, essentially, they are kind of like FBI agents, only 452 00:25:06,882 --> 00:25:08,050 instead of going after criminals and terrorists, 453 00:25:08,175 --> 00:25:09,092 they go after disease. 454 00:25:09,217 --> 00:25:11,219 So when an outbreak, 455 00:25:11,303 --> 00:25:12,095 especially a sort of outbreak 456 00:25:12,220 --> 00:25:14,514 of unknown origin pops up in the U. S., 457 00:25:14,639 --> 00:25:15,849 or sometimes around the world, 458 00:25:15,974 --> 00:25:18,226 the CDC will send in epidemiologists 459 00:25:18,351 --> 00:25:20,771 from the service to figure out what's going on. 460 00:25:20,854 --> 00:25:23,857 And the CDC's disease detectives are 461 00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:26,526 the best in the world at this. 462 00:25:26,610 --> 00:25:30,113 REDDICK: The Legionnaire outbreak in 1976 463 00:25:30,238 --> 00:25:34,367 sparked nationwide fear about the unknown disease that had 464 00:25:34,451 --> 00:25:37,829 claimed the lives of 29 victims. 465 00:25:37,913 --> 00:25:41,083 So the disease detectives raced to solve the mystery. 466 00:25:41,208 --> 00:25:44,211 They scoured the hotel where the legionnaires had 467 00:25:44,294 --> 00:25:46,088 held their convention, 468 00:25:46,213 --> 00:25:48,757 quickly discovered a mysterious bacterium 469 00:25:48,840 --> 00:25:51,593 in the hotel's air‐conditioning system, 470 00:25:51,718 --> 00:25:53,470 and took samples of it to be analyzed 471 00:25:53,553 --> 00:25:56,306 at the Centers for Disease Control. 472 00:25:56,389 --> 00:26:00,560 And so they sent those specimens to CDC and they were able to 473 00:26:00,685 --> 00:26:03,063 characterize an unusual bacillus. 474 00:26:03,146 --> 00:26:07,067 And they found this thing that's now called Legionella, 475 00:26:07,192 --> 00:26:08,652 or Legionnaires disease. 476 00:26:08,735 --> 00:26:11,947 And so that's something that, it's in water. 477 00:26:12,072 --> 00:26:15,784 It's very different than other bacterial causes. 478 00:26:15,909 --> 00:26:17,536 You can find it in cooling towers that are 479 00:26:17,661 --> 00:26:19,371 on top of buildings. 480 00:26:19,454 --> 00:26:22,791 You can find it in Whirlpool spas, 481 00:26:22,916 --> 00:26:27,129 sometimes in swimming pools and other sources of water. 482 00:26:27,212 --> 00:26:30,257 And when people walk past it, they breathe in those droplets, 483 00:26:30,382 --> 00:26:32,926 and then they get the bacteria deep in their lungs, 484 00:26:33,051 --> 00:26:36,304 and then they get a bad pneumonia, and it can be fatal. 485 00:26:37,222 --> 00:26:38,849 PEVZNER: Our disease detectives are looking at 486 00:26:38,932 --> 00:26:40,517 how can they intervene to ensure 487 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:42,561 upon the safety of the public? 488 00:26:42,686 --> 00:26:44,896 And then, after they've investigated, 489 00:26:45,021 --> 00:26:46,106 and they collected information, 490 00:26:46,231 --> 00:26:48,400 and they think that they might know an intervention, 491 00:26:48,483 --> 00:26:51,945 the next step is, obviously, to communicate that. 492 00:26:52,070 --> 00:26:54,948 REDDICK: The rapid discovery of the Legionella bacterium 493 00:26:55,073 --> 00:26:57,826 brought the potential outbreak to a halt. 494 00:26:57,909 --> 00:27:00,537 Thanks to the information provided by 495 00:27:00,662 --> 00:27:02,205 the EIS disease detectives, 496 00:27:02,330 --> 00:27:06,126 air‐conditioning units and water systems across the country 497 00:27:06,251 --> 00:27:10,380 were retrofitted to minimize the risk. 498 00:27:10,505 --> 00:27:13,925 The program has evolved quite a bit since 1951, 499 00:27:14,050 --> 00:27:17,220 when it was originally just physicians and all males. 500 00:27:17,345 --> 00:27:20,724 Now we include not just physicians, but nurses, 501 00:27:20,807 --> 00:27:24,644 veterinarians, PhD‐level scientists. 502 00:27:24,728 --> 00:27:27,397 It's a real diverse skill set of people 503 00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:32,819 that are prepared to deploy and respond to emerging threats. 504 00:27:32,903 --> 00:27:35,280 REDDICK: EIS leaders have not only expanded 505 00:27:35,405 --> 00:27:38,366 their membership to include experts in different fields 506 00:27:38,450 --> 00:27:40,202 of research and technology, 507 00:27:40,327 --> 00:27:42,871 they've also expanded where they operate, 508 00:27:42,913 --> 00:27:46,750 all around the world. 509 00:27:46,875 --> 00:27:50,754 However, they must accept potentially deadly risks 510 00:27:50,837 --> 00:27:53,548 to their own health in the process. 511 00:27:54,549 --> 00:27:58,053 There was an outbreak I participated in in Uganda 512 00:27:58,136 --> 00:28:01,181 where I went in a cave that was 513 00:28:01,223 --> 00:28:03,683 full of thousands and thousands of bats 514 00:28:03,808 --> 00:28:06,144 that might be infected with Marburg virus, 515 00:28:06,228 --> 00:28:09,648 which is a deadly virus related to Ebola. 516 00:28:09,731 --> 00:28:12,817 And I really geared up when I went in there. 517 00:28:12,901 --> 00:28:15,570 Not only was I wearing a battery‐operated 518 00:28:15,695 --> 00:28:17,781 respirator to help me breathe pure air, 519 00:28:17,864 --> 00:28:20,033 I had to wear a helmet because I might hit my head 520 00:28:20,116 --> 00:28:23,203 on the rocks in the cave, and I actually had to wear 521 00:28:23,328 --> 00:28:26,456 snake chaps, because there were snakes in that cave, 522 00:28:26,581 --> 00:28:28,291 including spitting cobras, 523 00:28:28,416 --> 00:28:30,919 that you wanted to protect yourself against. 524 00:28:31,002 --> 00:28:33,672 And that's what has made it so particularly dangerous. 525 00:28:33,797 --> 00:28:37,550 JERNIGAN: Disease detectives, myself, have been involved in 526 00:28:37,676 --> 00:28:41,513 SARS in 2003, West Nile virus. 527 00:28:41,596 --> 00:28:45,433 Ebola in 2014, '15. Zika. 528 00:28:46,226 --> 00:28:49,020 And now, most recently, the emergence of COVID‐19. 529 00:28:49,145 --> 00:28:54,651 They're the smart people we put out into the field in order to 530 00:28:54,734 --> 00:28:56,736 figure things out as quickly as possible. 531 00:28:56,820 --> 00:29:00,865 PEVZNER: For our disease detectives, collecting the most valid 532 00:29:00,949 --> 00:29:04,202 and reliable evidence is their top priority. 533 00:29:04,327 --> 00:29:08,206 Not collecting data for the sake of publication or fame. 534 00:29:08,290 --> 00:29:10,375 They're collecting this information so that 535 00:29:10,458 --> 00:29:13,169 there can be public health action taken. 536 00:29:13,253 --> 00:29:16,798 They're ready on a moment's notice to deploy to any 537 00:29:16,881 --> 00:29:19,301 new or emerging public health threat. 538 00:29:20,885 --> 00:29:24,931 What happens if the disease detectives are too late, 539 00:29:25,056 --> 00:29:27,892 and a major epidemic is already spreading? 540 00:29:28,018 --> 00:29:30,812 Do epidemiologists have the means to predict 541 00:29:30,895 --> 00:29:32,272 where a virus might go, 542 00:29:32,397 --> 00:29:35,650 and contain it before it spirals out of control? 543 00:29:35,734 --> 00:29:38,403 It's entirely possible. 544 00:29:38,528 --> 00:29:42,699 And one of the most promising tools just might turn out to be 545 00:29:42,782 --> 00:29:45,118 a video game. 546 00:29:54,836 --> 00:29:58,256 Video game developer Blizzard Entertainment 547 00:29:58,381 --> 00:30:01,301 introduces a surprise element to its popular online 548 00:30:01,384 --> 00:30:06,181 role‐playing game World of Warcraft: 549 00:30:06,264 --> 00:30:08,767 a virtual virus, with the potential to infect 550 00:30:08,892 --> 00:30:11,770 characters within the game's fantasy universe. 551 00:30:11,853 --> 00:30:14,731 They call the virus... 552 00:30:14,856 --> 00:30:16,566 Corrupted Blood. 553 00:30:16,649 --> 00:30:21,821 The Corrupted Blood experience in World of Warcraft was 554 00:30:21,905 --> 00:30:24,199 essentially a new patch for the game. 555 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:27,202 Corrupted Blood was intended to be sort of an inconvenience 556 00:30:27,243 --> 00:30:28,286 to these extremely powerful players 557 00:30:28,411 --> 00:30:31,414 as they battled a demon in this particular 558 00:30:31,539 --> 00:30:33,958 setting within the game. 559 00:30:34,084 --> 00:30:36,711 And it was intended to slow these very powerful 560 00:30:36,836 --> 00:30:40,757 players down, and make it more challenging to battle the demon. 561 00:30:40,882 --> 00:30:44,594 However, uh, the Corrupted Blood feature did not stay contained 562 00:30:44,719 --> 00:30:48,681 within that special battleground for very strong players. 563 00:30:48,807 --> 00:30:50,308 In fact, it was spread unintentionally, 564 00:30:50,392 --> 00:30:53,395 because players infected with the Corrupted Blood 565 00:30:53,520 --> 00:30:56,398 would leave the battleground and then expose themselves 566 00:30:56,523 --> 00:30:58,525 to other players that were less powerful. 567 00:30:58,566 --> 00:31:00,193 And those players were extremely susceptible 568 00:31:00,276 --> 00:31:02,404 to the Corrupted Blood, and then would die. 569 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:09,661 This Corrupted Blood episode was essentially a digital pandemic, 570 00:31:09,744 --> 00:31:12,455 and it caught the players by surprise. 571 00:31:13,540 --> 00:31:15,125 REDDICK: At the time, 572 00:31:15,208 --> 00:31:18,211 the more than five million World of Warcraft players 573 00:31:18,294 --> 00:31:22,424 around the globe were rocked by the Corrupted Blood virus 574 00:31:22,507 --> 00:31:24,008 raging through the game, 575 00:31:24,134 --> 00:31:27,804 as it began killing off their characters. 576 00:31:27,887 --> 00:31:32,142 But curiously, scientists noted that there were 577 00:31:32,225 --> 00:31:35,979 eerie similarities between this digital pandemic 578 00:31:36,062 --> 00:31:38,857 and a real outbreak. 579 00:31:38,982 --> 00:31:40,358 When you were infected with this virus, 580 00:31:40,442 --> 00:31:42,235 you had to stay away from the other players, 581 00:31:42,318 --> 00:31:44,404 you had to socially distance, 582 00:31:44,529 --> 00:31:47,157 or else the other player would get infected. 583 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:50,535 And there are many different types of players. 584 00:31:50,660 --> 00:31:51,619 Some have a lot of points. 585 00:31:52,912 --> 00:31:55,206 Some didn't have a lot of points. 586 00:31:55,248 --> 00:31:57,625 And when you had the virus, 587 00:31:57,750 --> 00:31:59,627 your life force would deplete. 588 00:31:59,711 --> 00:32:04,174 So, of course, the individuals that don't have enough points 589 00:32:04,215 --> 00:32:06,092 were the first to pass away. 590 00:32:06,217 --> 00:32:10,221 While individuals who collected more coins or points‐‐ 591 00:32:10,346 --> 00:32:11,848 they seemed to do better. 592 00:32:11,931 --> 00:32:15,059 And no matter what happened in this game, 593 00:32:15,143 --> 00:32:17,562 it seemed like the virus kept on spreading. 594 00:32:17,645 --> 00:32:23,234 In fact, animals could even get infected in the game. 595 00:32:24,819 --> 00:32:28,156 REDDICK: The Corrupted Blood pandemic lasted for nearly a month 596 00:32:28,239 --> 00:32:31,784 before the World of Warcraft designers retooled the virus 597 00:32:31,868 --> 00:32:33,953 to stop its spread. 598 00:32:34,037 --> 00:32:36,956 A virtual vaccine, if you will. 599 00:32:37,040 --> 00:32:39,584 But that was not the end of the story, 600 00:32:39,667 --> 00:32:44,547 because in September of 2007, scientists from Tufts University 601 00:32:44,631 --> 00:32:47,258 published a research paper which suggested 602 00:32:47,383 --> 00:32:50,053 that virtual games like World of Warcraft 603 00:32:50,178 --> 00:32:54,849 were an untapped resource in the study of pandemics. 604 00:32:54,933 --> 00:32:58,686 FISHER: The unique thing about the World of Warcraft simulation 605 00:32:58,811 --> 00:33:01,314 was that it was a potential new type of opportunity 606 00:33:01,397 --> 00:33:04,484 to understand and maybe even predict the different ways 607 00:33:04,567 --> 00:33:06,653 that human behavior might influence 608 00:33:06,736 --> 00:33:08,321 the spread of a pandemic. 609 00:33:08,404 --> 00:33:10,782 So for example, um, during the outbreak, 610 00:33:10,865 --> 00:33:12,700 the developers imposed a quarantine 611 00:33:12,784 --> 00:33:15,662 to try to get players to stay within, uh, particular areas, 612 00:33:15,745 --> 00:33:19,082 um, to help slow the spread of the‐the Corrupted Blood feature, 613 00:33:19,165 --> 00:33:20,667 uh, but they ignored it. 614 00:33:20,750 --> 00:33:23,628 DASGUPTA: I think the take‐home message is that 615 00:33:23,711 --> 00:33:26,673 what once was just a video game for entertainment 616 00:33:26,798 --> 00:33:31,094 turned out to be something that maybe can be studied, 617 00:33:31,219 --> 00:33:33,096 and that was interesting. 618 00:33:33,179 --> 00:33:34,973 It wasn't just the game itself, 619 00:33:35,056 --> 00:33:38,393 but how the players reacted to the virus, 620 00:33:38,518 --> 00:33:42,939 how people thought during a pandemic. 621 00:33:43,064 --> 00:33:45,358 What do they do? 622 00:33:45,441 --> 00:33:48,820 REDDICK: In the years since the Corrupted Blood incident, 623 00:33:48,903 --> 00:33:52,657 the use of computer simulations to help fight real pandemics 624 00:33:52,740 --> 00:33:54,492 has evolved. 625 00:33:54,576 --> 00:33:57,412 These sophisticated digital tools 626 00:33:57,495 --> 00:34:01,749 are now referred to as mathematical models. 627 00:34:03,543 --> 00:34:05,545 KORTEPETER: The model is really just trying 628 00:34:05,670 --> 00:34:11,009 to predict the future using specific assumptions 629 00:34:11,050 --> 00:34:13,595 about where the disease might be going 630 00:34:13,720 --> 00:34:15,013 in terms of the outbreak. 631 00:34:15,054 --> 00:34:17,682 So you take what's known, as best you can, 632 00:34:17,724 --> 00:34:21,436 and look at various scenarios and numbers, 633 00:34:21,561 --> 00:34:23,813 and you throw that into some kind of a formula 634 00:34:23,896 --> 00:34:27,317 and it can give you some sense of where the outbreak is going. 635 00:34:27,400 --> 00:34:28,610 FISHER: Mathematical models 636 00:34:28,735 --> 00:34:32,280 can be used to, um, help predict things like 637 00:34:32,363 --> 00:34:34,324 how fast a virus will spread, 638 00:34:34,407 --> 00:34:36,826 um, how many individuals will be, uh, affected, 639 00:34:36,909 --> 00:34:40,580 how efficacious these different sorts of methods 640 00:34:40,663 --> 00:34:43,708 of slowing the spread might be, whether it's a quarantine 641 00:34:43,791 --> 00:34:46,210 or just limiting certain types of services. 642 00:34:46,336 --> 00:34:48,254 How much hospital capacity will be needed 643 00:34:48,338 --> 00:34:50,173 in these different scenarios. 644 00:34:50,298 --> 00:34:51,591 These are all things that models 645 00:34:51,674 --> 00:34:54,677 can help public health officials gauge. 646 00:34:55,970 --> 00:34:58,848 At their best, mathematical models 647 00:34:58,973 --> 00:35:01,684 can only offer theories as to what might happen 648 00:35:01,768 --> 00:35:04,479 as a pandemic spreads across the world. 649 00:35:04,562 --> 00:35:08,941 But could a viral threat emerge for which no data exists at all? 650 00:35:09,067 --> 00:35:11,944 How do we prepare for a virus 651 00:35:12,070 --> 00:35:15,281 that's not of this Earth? 652 00:35:25,249 --> 00:35:28,961 REDDICK: 900 miles southwest of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean. 653 00:35:29,045 --> 00:35:33,841 Four days after achieving their historic Moon landing, 654 00:35:33,966 --> 00:35:36,260 the Apollo 11 astronauts splash down 655 00:35:36,386 --> 00:35:38,096 inside their space capsule 656 00:35:38,221 --> 00:35:41,724 and are safely recovered by the U. S. Navy. 657 00:35:41,849 --> 00:35:45,561 But instead of being allowed to immediately reunite 658 00:35:45,687 --> 00:35:47,939 with their colleagues and families to celebrate, 659 00:35:48,022 --> 00:35:52,485 Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins 660 00:35:52,568 --> 00:35:56,155 are placed in a strict two‐week quarantine. 661 00:35:56,239 --> 00:35:57,949 The reason? 662 00:35:58,032 --> 00:36:01,536 NASA's fears that the men might possibly have contracted 663 00:36:01,619 --> 00:36:06,541 a lunar virus and brought it back to Earth. 664 00:36:06,624 --> 00:36:08,626 These were the first time astronauts were actually 665 00:36:08,751 --> 00:36:10,962 going to another planetary body, staying there 666 00:36:11,045 --> 00:36:12,171 and then coming back. 667 00:36:12,213 --> 00:36:14,590 It's absolutely feasible that a biological contaminant 668 00:36:14,674 --> 00:36:18,136 of some kind could come back with astronauts. 669 00:36:18,219 --> 00:36:21,597 They quarantined the astronauts from that‐that first mission 670 00:36:21,723 --> 00:36:23,474 and they also brought back Moon rocks, 671 00:36:23,558 --> 00:36:26,519 and tried grinding them up, extracting them, 672 00:36:26,644 --> 00:36:29,355 feeding them to every type of life that they could think of 673 00:36:29,439 --> 00:36:32,316 just to see if there are any ill effects. 674 00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:33,985 REDDICK: In the end, 675 00:36:34,068 --> 00:36:36,946 concerns that the Apollo 11 astronauts brought back 676 00:36:37,029 --> 00:36:38,698 any kind of lunar infection 677 00:36:38,823 --> 00:36:42,034 thankfully turned out to be a false alarm. 678 00:36:42,076 --> 00:36:46,539 But why would NASA worry that bacteria and viruses might exist 679 00:36:46,664 --> 00:36:50,001 in the freezing vacuum of space in the first place? 680 00:36:50,084 --> 00:36:51,335 The answer lies 681 00:36:51,377 --> 00:36:54,172 in the controversial theory of panspermia, 682 00:36:54,255 --> 00:36:56,507 which suggests that microbial life, 683 00:36:56,591 --> 00:36:58,593 including potential viruses, 684 00:36:58,676 --> 00:37:01,012 can be found throughout the cosmos, 685 00:37:01,137 --> 00:37:04,348 including on moons, asteroids, 686 00:37:04,432 --> 00:37:07,518 comets and alien planets. 687 00:37:07,602 --> 00:37:09,645 CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE: Panspermia is essentially 688 00:37:09,729 --> 00:37:12,190 derived from Greek roots‐‐ 689 00:37:12,273 --> 00:37:16,903 "pan," meaning everywhere, and "spermata," meaning seeds. 690 00:37:18,029 --> 00:37:22,950 So panspermia essentially means "seeds of life everywhere." 691 00:37:23,075 --> 00:37:27,538 The concept is that life seeds are distributed 692 00:37:27,622 --> 00:37:30,041 widely across the entire universe. 693 00:37:30,124 --> 00:37:34,504 And whenever conditions are correct or appropriate 694 00:37:34,587 --> 00:37:37,006 on a planet, say, like the Earth, 695 00:37:37,131 --> 00:37:42,512 then life is deposited and life gets started. 696 00:37:42,595 --> 00:37:45,640 REDDICK: According to the theory of panspermia, 697 00:37:45,723 --> 00:37:49,018 space microbes trapped in meteors and comets 698 00:37:49,143 --> 00:37:51,562 regularly rain down on Earth. 699 00:37:52,647 --> 00:37:56,859 WICKRAMASINGHE: We have some hundred tons of cometary debris 700 00:37:56,984 --> 00:38:00,738 coming into the Earth's atmosphere all the time. 701 00:38:00,822 --> 00:38:05,243 So, I think there had to be a continuing influx 702 00:38:05,368 --> 00:38:08,746 of bacteria and also viruses. 703 00:38:08,830 --> 00:38:11,499 And major epidemics throughout history 704 00:38:11,582 --> 00:38:14,669 have started suddenly 705 00:38:14,752 --> 00:38:18,005 and disappeared equally suddenly. 706 00:38:18,130 --> 00:38:22,176 And I think the most reasonable explanation 707 00:38:22,260 --> 00:38:26,013 is that bacteria, viruses and maybe 708 00:38:26,097 --> 00:38:28,599 even other organisms could have been introduced 709 00:38:28,724 --> 00:38:33,646 from outside and caused these huge pandemics of disease. 710 00:38:35,273 --> 00:38:38,568 REDDICK: The idea that pandemics could come to Earth from space 711 00:38:38,693 --> 00:38:42,488 is a fascinating and chilling theory. 712 00:38:42,572 --> 00:38:46,492 However, the much more sobering reality 713 00:38:46,576 --> 00:38:49,370 is that the grave threat of deadly, global infections 714 00:38:49,453 --> 00:38:51,247 is alive and well, 715 00:38:51,330 --> 00:38:56,711 a fact driven home by COVID‐19. 716 00:39:02,550 --> 00:39:07,346 Every nation had to face an indisputable fact: 717 00:39:07,430 --> 00:39:10,099 the virus was everywhere, 718 00:39:10,182 --> 00:39:14,353 and the death toll was mounting. 719 00:39:14,437 --> 00:39:17,648 Doctors, scientists and political leaders 720 00:39:17,732 --> 00:39:20,943 focused on one critical goal: 721 00:39:21,068 --> 00:39:25,907 developing a vaccine to combat COVID‐19. 722 00:39:26,032 --> 00:39:29,410 KORTEPETER: There are multiple challenges to developing vaccines. 723 00:39:29,535 --> 00:39:31,495 The most basic is identifying 724 00:39:31,579 --> 00:39:34,707 the appropriate antigen or protein to use 725 00:39:34,749 --> 00:39:36,709 that actually will be protective. 726 00:39:36,751 --> 00:39:38,336 And if you think about it, 727 00:39:38,419 --> 00:39:41,380 it took us 50 years to get the Ebola vaccine. 728 00:39:41,505 --> 00:39:43,674 We still don't have a vaccine for HIV. 729 00:39:43,799 --> 00:39:46,552 So, this can take a long time. 730 00:39:46,636 --> 00:39:48,971 But we were very fortunate, 731 00:39:49,055 --> 00:39:51,557 now that we identified the right virus. 732 00:39:51,641 --> 00:39:55,019 We knew it was part of the coronavirus family. 733 00:39:55,102 --> 00:39:58,189 It was new, hence the word "novel," 734 00:39:58,272 --> 00:40:01,692 but we knew what we wanted to fight against, 735 00:40:01,776 --> 00:40:03,903 which was the spike protein. 736 00:40:04,028 --> 00:40:08,407 Once we knew that, the science kicked in. 737 00:40:08,532 --> 00:40:11,118 REDDICK: On December 11, 2020, 738 00:40:11,202 --> 00:40:14,580 the world breathed a collective sigh of relief 739 00:40:14,664 --> 00:40:17,750 when the U. S. Food and Drug Administration approved 740 00:40:17,875 --> 00:40:21,128 the first coronavirus vaccine. 741 00:40:21,212 --> 00:40:23,547 This breakthrough was quickly followed 742 00:40:23,631 --> 00:40:26,008 by additional approved vaccines, 743 00:40:26,092 --> 00:40:28,844 and hope for the future began to emerge 744 00:40:28,928 --> 00:40:32,556 as hundreds of millions were immunized around the globe. 745 00:40:34,225 --> 00:40:37,019 KORTEPETER: Actually when you have such 746 00:40:37,061 --> 00:40:39,313 a concentrated effort and funding, 747 00:40:39,397 --> 00:40:41,691 it's amazing to watch how quickly 748 00:40:41,816 --> 00:40:45,361 we develop new vaccines for this brand‐new disease. 749 00:40:45,486 --> 00:40:48,280 That's really incredible, having that will 750 00:40:48,364 --> 00:40:51,826 and the money to do it, and the scientific basis. 751 00:40:53,703 --> 00:40:56,038 If I had one wish from this pandemic, 752 00:40:56,122 --> 00:40:59,250 it would be that everyone‐‐ including myself‐‐ 753 00:40:59,333 --> 00:41:01,168 we learn from our mistakes. 754 00:41:01,210 --> 00:41:05,214 And, of course, we always need to work together 755 00:41:05,297 --> 00:41:06,674 and not be divided. 756 00:41:06,757 --> 00:41:08,884 Because if we don't communicate, 757 00:41:09,010 --> 00:41:13,431 we'll never get the input of all the individuals, 758 00:41:13,556 --> 00:41:16,684 whether it be the doctor who travels to Alaska, 759 00:41:16,809 --> 00:41:19,770 whether it be the epidemiologist who plays a video game, 760 00:41:19,895 --> 00:41:23,065 everyone's opinion counts. 761 00:41:23,149 --> 00:41:26,110 So, hopefully, we'll continue to communicate, 762 00:41:26,193 --> 00:41:27,028 and we'll be in this‐‐ 763 00:41:27,111 --> 00:41:30,114 and conquer whatever happens‐‐ together. 764 00:41:33,200 --> 00:41:36,037 If recent events have taught us anything, 765 00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:38,205 it's that the threat of deadly pandemics 766 00:41:38,247 --> 00:41:39,665 may never be eliminated. 767 00:41:39,749 --> 00:41:42,918 So, here are the questions that remain. 768 00:41:43,002 --> 00:41:45,546 How will the next one arise? 769 00:41:45,629 --> 00:41:49,175 Is it possible that we can prevent it before it happens? 770 00:41:49,216 --> 00:41:52,678 And if not, will we be ready to contain it? 771 00:41:52,803 --> 00:41:56,515 Some of these answers will only come with time, 772 00:41:56,599 --> 00:41:59,393 while the others could remain hidden 773 00:41:59,518 --> 00:42:03,022 in America's book of secrets. 774 00:42:03,105 --> 00:42:06,275 CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY A+E NETWORKS