Epidemic: How to Prevent a Flu Outbreak

Epidemic: How to Prevent a Flu Outbreak

This high-scoring documentary makes us think about the epidemic and the future

The new crown pneumonia epidemic is spreading globally, and China's fight against the epidemic is also at a critical stage. In the long history of human development, we have experienced many raging epidemics. These epidemics are not only linked to the sad past in human history. And there are countless silent epics of healthcare workers fighting the virus.

On January 22, Netflix recently launched a documentary "Epidemics: How to Prevent a Flu Outbreak" (hereinafter referred to as "the epidemic"). This Douban 8-point documentary was broadcast "at the right time". "Epidemic" is not preaching the terrible lethality of the flu, but recording the courage of all parties to fight the virus, analyzing the flu from the perspectives of public health defense system, medical treatment, virology, epidemiology, and sociology. , Trying to make humans learn to value the epidemic and take steps to avoid the next danger. As the documentary warns: "When it comes to another pandemic, the question is not whether it will happen, but when it will happen."

Albert Camus said in his classic "Plague" that "evil in the world is almost always caused by ignorance, and without understanding, good intentions can do as much harm as bad faith."

Therefore, as we overcome the difficulties, we might as well watch this documentary and think about the epidemic and the future.

The biggest challenge of the epidemic is lightness

There are six episodes of "Epidemic" produced by five different directors. They chose the perspectives of people from different regions and fields around the world and connected them in parallel. They tried to show that the battle between humans and the influenza virus is a long way to go and must be unremitting.

The "protagonists" in the documentary are epidemiologists dedicated to building a global defense system, physicians in Rajasthan, India, "virus hunters" that track the source of the virus, and the only doctor in Oklahoma township hospitals Researchers who hope to develop a "universal flu vaccine", heads of medical rescue teams, and flu patients, etc., are fighting stubbornly against the flu based on their own perspectives, with success and hope, but also failure, anxiety, and death.

The Epidemic pays tribute to the unknown heroes fighting the flu in various countries, understands their efforts to stop the next global epidemic, and is alerting everyone that when the flu strikes, do n’t think it ’s just “one A flu. " In the captions at the end, the World Health Organization says that the flu can kill hundreds of millions of people, but most countries are still unprepared for this and invest in measures to counter the threat.

A helpless fact told in Epidemics is that in the face of the epidemic, too many people have "ignorant optimism."

At the beginning of the documentary, it introduced a global flu of 1918-the "Spanish flu". After the First World War in 1918, the Spanish flu virus spread to all parts of the world following these First World War returnees. In just 18 months, nearly 1 billion people were infected. At that time, the world population was only 1.8 billion. The number of people who eventually died of "Spanish flu" was about 50 million to 100 million people. This number exceeds that of the two world wars. Total deaths. In the eyes of experts, the shadow of "Spanish flu" has not subsided. SARS, Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, Indian swine flu, and avian flu are attacking the weak links of humans.

In fact, except for smallpox, humans have never really eliminated any disease-causing viruses. Almost every once in a while, viruses or bacteria will sweep the globe and bring a catastrophe to humanity. From plague, cholera, the flu of the early last century, to today's SARS, swine flu, bird flu ... Fighting the virus is the norm for humans.

But so far, the public still underestimates the horrors of the flu, and most people think that as long as they eat lemon, turmeric, honey, and drink plenty of hot water, they can recover. Just as Bill Gates, who donated US $ 12 million to develop a "universal flu vaccine" in 2018, said: "A lot of medical staff have devoted their lives to the cause of epidemic control and prevention, but the biggest risk is that facing the epidemic Ordinary people are never ready for disease. "The Epidemic hopes to tell you that the biggest challenge in the face of flu is not to be paralyzed. There are almost endless variations of influenza viruses.

Medical staff need more care

The epidemic has a plot of a hospital exercise. From how to wear protective clothing, how to deal with critically ill patients, and how to mobilize personnel and materials throughout the hospital, the entire process must be familiar and accurate. Prepare for battle.

During the exercise, a nurse saw an emergency patient coming in through the door. The first reaction was to insert the catheter first, and then wear protective clothing. They said, "When I need to change into the gown of the protective clothing, the patient What to do if intubation is urgently needed? "For the dedication of the medical staff, the exercise organizer Sela told her:" In the face of severe respiratory diseases, if you cannot protect yourself, how can you protect others? "

For hospitals, when rescuing influenza patients, it also involves how to deploy personnel, materials, and how to place critically ill patients. All these processes need to form a rapid response to conditioned reflexes in order to deal with unseen virus killers.

Whether in the relatively wealthy United States or densely populated India, medical preparations are never enough. Medical professionals around the world are working hard to help every patient in the most difficult situations. The greatness of the doctors is common.

In The Epidemic, doctors faced highly contagious flu patients without any escape. After a few days of exhaustion, the condition was finally brought under control, and the tired doctor said to the camera, "Eliminating the pain of others makes me very happy."

The Epidemic also pointed out the lack of primary medical institutions in the United States. More than 100 rural hospitals have been closed in the United States, and another 700 are at risk of closing. An American public health official in the film said, "The money we invest in the field of biological defense can only build half of the aircraft carriers; but people who died because of the problem of biological defense killed more than all the wars of the last century combined. There are many people. "

In the documentary, the female doctor Holly is the only doctor in a small county in the United States. This hospital provides medical services to 9,000 people in nearby villages. She basically works in the hospital for 24 hours. Holly was infected during the treatment of the flu. As the only doctor in this rural hospital, when she just got better, she had to work on duty for 72 consecutive hours. Holly ’s marriage with her husband also had a huge problem because of her overload. Work made her completely ignore her family. She wakes up in the clinic, eats and sleeps in the clinic, and her health is constantly being consumed. In the end, she gave up the dream of a country doctor who was in her heart when she was young, quit her job and moved back to the city.

The Indian doctor Vijay's story is also very touching. He goes into the critically ill every day, and uses "You must be brave", "I want you to walk home from here", "Do you want to attend a wedding" to encourage patients. When a patient dies from flu syndrome, he sheds tears. "The joy of healing ten patients is not worth the sorrow of losing one patient," said Vijay. To this end, he prays daily before the deities, hoping that the gods will help him heal the patients.

Viruses mostly parasitic on birds

In the first episode of Epidemics, Dr. Syla Mudad, senior director of the New York City Health and Hospital Special Pathogens Program, said, "The next epidemic will only be a matter of time; we do n’t know where and how it will happen. But it will definitely happen "has a revelation to alert humanity, and this is actually a point repeatedly emphasized in the documentary.

Experts emphasize that the public should not mistake the flu for seasonal reasons, because new influenza variants that threaten the survival of human species are emerging every so often.

Experts in the documentary stated that in 1918, more than 50 million people died of the flu, but at that time there were no planes, and no one rushed from one country to another every day, without raising thousands of pigs and Factory farms for chickens, but now there are. It is likely that the next outbreak will kill hundreds of millions of people. More than 3,000 commercial flights pass through New York airports every day. If a passenger with a new type of disease arrives in New York City, the disease can begin to spread without being noticed. The virus can spread through the air, cough, sneeze, or even breathe. Because there is no prior immunization, the outbreak will be very fierce. In just a few weeks, a new type of virulent influenza strain can make a city unable to resist . The virus can spread throughout the country in less than a month, and spread throughout the world in another month. It takes only one person to cause all of this.

In "The Epidemic", some people are looking for the source of the virus. For example, Dennis Carroll, the director of the emerging threat department of the United States Agency for International Development, went to many places where poultry were raised to investigate potential avian influenza viruses. Chicken farms to Indian pig farms; wildlife researcher Deb Carter and his team tracked ducks carrying the flu virus in the southeastern United States; Dr. Gaz Cayali traveled across the Middle East to track viruses in wild and domestic animals, Particular attention is paid to bats that have been closely linked to major infectious diseases in recent years.

Experts have concluded that the source of outbreaks of swine flu, bird flu, Ebola, and SARS is inseparable from wild animals. They found that bats can be a reservoir of flu, and that many horrific viruses have been associated with bats in recent years. The terrible thing is that when animals bring a brand new virus, humans have no natural resistance to it, and the human system cannot resist infection. This kind of transmission will become fatal, and the transmission of this virus is usually due to care. For example, a chicken farm had an influenza epidemic, but the flu did not come from there. Perhaps a hunter went to fight a wild bird, and then entered the henhouse without cleaning his boots. As a result, the flu spread, wild birds. Is the vector of the virus.

Volkswagen, doctors, and government work together

To defeat the virus

Doctor Syrah in The Epidemic likens people to virus-shaped humanoid cultivation boxes. She believes that each of us carries many types of viruses, but this does not mean that humans are helpless. "The key to controlling deadly viruses, you need to become passive," said Dennis Carroll, director of the Agency's emerging threats department. "The virus is transmitted from wild animals to poultry and then to humans, so you cannot wait for the epidemic To humans. You have to find it and fight it before the virus infects people. "At the end of the documentary, the camera once again swept over the doctors and experts who were fighting on the battlefield against epidemics, telling everyone that there is danger, but there is more hope .

And how to fight the fierce virus, the epidemic gives the view: "The public cannot resist the epidemic by themselves, neither can the doctors nor the government. Only the cooperation of the three can defeat it." It has never been a national or regional battle, but a well-being related to the interests of all human life.

Whether it is front-line medical workers, policy makers and planners, or global health leaders, we must take this serious issue seriously.

Jack Granville is working to build the world's first universal flu vaccine. This vaccine mainly achieves long-term protection by adjusting the body's immune system so that it responds to different viruses. For the global medical community, Jack's research is still blank in related fields. It sounds as difficult as a moon landing, however, it is not without opportunities. This project has been funded by the Gates Foundation. Bill Gates invested $ 12 million in advance and named it the "great challenge." This shows the difficulty of vaccine development.

Somewhat unfortunately, the general public's awareness of virus prevention is still lacking. There is a plot in "Epidemic", when the state of Oregon in the United States tried to implement compulsory vaccination bill 3063, met with strong public opposition. Proponents of the anti-vaccine movement claim that they know more about vaccines than doctors, and argue that compulsory vaccination violates citizens' right to choose freely and is forcibly injecting poison into children's bodies.

It can be seen that compared with the lethality of the virus itself, neglect, ignorance, and listening to rumors are more terrible secondary killers. A public health official in Washington acknowledged in the film that he was most worried about the establishment of an early warning system, but it did not work: "We have this history, we have encountered such incidents, and invested in Heavy money. Then we relax. "

The Epidemic tells us that we must be vigilant and actively respond to the virus. In order to avoid the worst consequences of change, we must change our way of life on this planet, or we will pay a heavy price. The epidemic is not only a medical problem, but a problem facing the whole society.

Text / Courtesy of our reporter Zhang Jia / NetFly