''Decoding COVID-19'' is a 2020 American PBS

documentary television film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

from the American TV series, ''

NOVA A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

'', that was released on May 13, 2020. The documentary film examines the COVID-19 pandemic over its initial six months, from its beginning in the last months of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China to May 2020.

Overview

SARS-CoV-2 is a coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, and has been responsible for a

pandemic A pandemic () is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. A widespread endemic (epidemiology), endemic disease wi ...

throughout the world. The film describes the history of the COVID-19 disease over its initial six months, from its beginning in the last months of 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei, China to May 2020. The film also presents the search for a safe and effective treatment. In addition, details of the effect of the disease on the human body at a microscopic level are described. According to film producer Julia Cort, "This film goes beyond the disease itself, telling a deeply human story of cooperation and innovation as scientists and researchers race to save lives in the face of a common enemy." According to producer Chris Schmidt, "This film examines an encouraging array of innovative new approaches that scientists are now pursuing to harness the immune system to fight back. And, we show how advances in genomics, combined with a new level of openness in sharing data and results among experts and health officials around the world, have greatly accelerated efforts."

Participants

The documentary film includes the following participants (alphabetized by last name): * Galit Alter,

Ragon Institute Phillip T. and Susan M. Ragon Institute is a medical institute founded in 2009 at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) by the funding from founder and CEO of InterSystems Phillip Ragon and his wife Susan Ragon to find vaccines for diseases of ...

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

, MIT,

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

* Dan Barouch, Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT, Harvard * Nahid Bhadelia,

Boston University School of Medicine The Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, formerly the Boston University School of Medicine, is one of the graduate schools of Boston University. Founded in 1848, the medical school was the first institution in the world ...

Kizzmekia Corbett Kizzmekia "Kizzy" Shanta Corbett (born January 26, 1986) is an American viral Immunology, immunologist. She is an Assistant Professor of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Shutzer Assistant ...

, National Institutes of Health (NIH) * Ronald B. Corley, Boston University

National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories The National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, or NEIDL, is a biosciences facility of Boston University located near Boston Medical Center on Albany Street in the South End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The lab is part of a nati ...

(NEIDL) *

Rhiju Das Rhiju Das (born 1978 in Houston, Texas) is a computational biochemist and an associate professor of biochemistry and physics at Stanford University. Research in his lab seeks a predictive understanding of how RNA molecules and their complexes for ...

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

* Robert A. Davey, Boston University's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) *

Michael Osterholm Michael Thomas Osterholm (born March 10, 1953) is an American epidemiologist, Regents Professor, and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. On November 9, 2020, Osterholm was named to ...

, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy * David Pride, University of California, San Diego * Liu Qi, 21-year-old university student who is among the first to contract the disease *

Craig Sechler Craig Sechler (born September 8, 1951) is an American film and voice actor, based in Washington D.C. Life and career Sechler was born on September 8, 1951 and grew up in Cranbury, New Jersey. He grew up doing commercials and professional singin ...

, narrator * Jeffrey Shaman, Columbia University * Duane Wesemann, Harvard Medical School, and others

References

External links

* at th
PBS WebSite
*
Joint ACAIM-WACEM COVID-19 Working Group Consensus Paper
(April 2020) {{portal bar, COVID-19, Film, Television 2020 American television episodes 2020 television films 2020 films 2020 documentary films American documentary television films Documentary films about the COVID-19 pandemic Nova (American TV program) episodes Television shows about the COVID-19 pandemic 2020s American films

Overview

Participants

See also

References

External links