Outbreak: The Virus That Shook The World
“The emotion elicited by this excellent documentary about the Covid-19 pandemic is sadness...”
This is the dramatic global story of the first year of Covid-19, tracing the devastation caused by the spread of the virus across four continents. This feature-length documentary explores the science, the politics and the tragic stories of the victims who are often the most vulnerable.
Going undercover into Wuhan, China, medical professionals are filmed covertly for the first time, claiming that the contagiousness of the virus was covered-up for weeks by the authorities. A leading infectious diseases specialist in neighbouring Taiwan, Dr. Yi-Chin Lo, tells ITV, “I think the pandemic could have been avoided, at the beginning, if China was transparent, about the outbreak, and was quick to provide necessary information to the world.”
Following the trail of the virus from China to Italy, the UK, USA and Brazil, the documentary explores how the pandemic was and remains potentially within our control, and how the decisions of governments, and public health officials helped shape its course, showing how a pandemic - that many underestimated - became the deadliest for a century.
Filming across four continents, the programme uniquely pulls together humanity’s shared experience of the virus, depicting the successes and failures in battling it, during one of our planet’s most historic years.
Read Robin’s Sunday Times article (paywall)
Directed, filmed and produced by Robin Barnwell
Producer: Gesbeen Mohammad
Film Editor: Guy Creasey
Composer: Simon Russell
Executive Producers: David Henshaw and Lesley Bonner
Broadcast on ITV (Hardcash Productions)
