Corona virus Explained - the world knew but was not prepared !

ASHOK’s FIVE reasons to watch the first episode of the “Corona virus Explained” series now streaming on Netflix. It is a short episode just about thirty minutes long and provides an insight into the origins of the pandemic that is currently sweeping the world. Created in collaboration between Netflix and Vox Studios, this is expected to be part of a three series show.

1.       The show demystifies Covid 19 and explains the concept of the zoonotic virus, and how it belongs to a family of viruses that exist in animals but has now jumped to infect humans. SARS and MERS belong to the same category, but this is more deadly paradoxically because the spread is slower and herd immunity is tough to attain.

2.       The origins can be traced back to the wet markets of China where living bats support the presence of the virus and how this can be transmitted to birds or pigs. Identifying and isolating the virus at the source is one way of preventing further outbreaks. The larger point though is that such outbreaks could happen from just about anywhere including South east Asia and it is clearly a resultant of man pushing the boundaries and intruding into the terrain of wild life.

3.       Man has always succeeded over the virus and the only sustainable solution is the discovery of a vaccine. The show points out how nations continue to over-invest in defense but not enough on preventive healthcare.

4.       What’s intriguing is that the world was aware of the flaring up of such a pandemic. Bill Gates talks about it long before 2020 and the WHO actually released a report in September 2019 that ends with the chilling point that “the world is not prepared”

5.       The graphics are brilliant and lucid, especially the one which shows you where the corona virus would find its place on a map of viruses just next to the Spanish flu of 1918; not as deadly as the Ebola virus but more widespread. The other interesting visual is the one that depicts the spread of the Covid 19 virus across the world with time and how this could have been prevented or substantially mitigated if the alarm had been raised even one week earlier. The whistle bower doctor in Wuhan was actually prevented from raising the alarm and later succumbed to the disease.

Corona virus Explained is concise, lucid and impactful. Watch it for the wonderful narration of J K Simmons and the non-judgmental, non-hyperbole narrative. The next two episodes are expected shortly and should provide hope for the future!