>> narrator: america is >> protests over tth of george floyd while in police... >> narrator: people taking to the streets. >> ...the esgoing ts could cause a spike in coronavi a second wave- correspondent martin smith looks at how we got here.y >>nyhat needs a test gets a test... >> did you say to him, "look, mr. president with all due respect, it's not true what you're saying"? >> yeah. i'm not going to comment on the conversations i've had with the president. t >> narrato missteps and the denials... >> this is a new hoax... >> narrator: we have leaders throughout much of january and february saying that this is a hoax. >> every lab isti fighng fortself; every stateig is fhting for itself. >> narrator: now on frontline, "the virus".

>> the will be thousands who will die needlessly, because of our lack of preparedss. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. n you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and aceful world. more information at macfound.org. the ford foundation: working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org.al additiupport is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence injo nalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues.nd the johnelen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism tt informs and inspires. and by the frontline journalismund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. chris and lisa kaneb.t from

(crowd cheering) (fireworks explong) >> martin smith: december 31. ("auld lang syne" playing) one million people crowded into new york'simes square to celebrate what they hoped would be a brit new year. ("auld lang syne" continues) what no one knew at the time was that a highly infectious virus was rapidly moving toward them. >> ♪ new york ♪ new york ("theme from 'new york, new york'" ends)

(crowd cheering) ♪ >> scientists say a new virus related to sars may be responsible for a mysteriouspn monia outbreak in china. >> smithi had begun reporting on the coronavirus several months ago. >> the new coronavirusas found in 15 of 59 patients.: >> smihad just returned from the middle east, where i was covering events in iraq and iran. out ofaution, i decided to mountains, two hours north ofw neyork city. i would do my reporting from here. >> as it stands right now, the cdc believes that the risk to the american population is l. but we just don't know how contagious this virus is. >> smith: i wanted to understand where we were headed. re we prepared? were warnings being heeded?

(skype tone playing) among my fst calls was to dr. david ho... dr. ho. la renowned american medi researcher who i met years back when i was reporting on the aids epidemic. you don't look too worse for wear.uc >> (es): i'm just putting up a good front here. (cckles) >> smith: dr. ho had worked to stem the spread of sars in 2003. now he was worried about the spad of covid-19. do you think people are grasping how, how serious this situation is? >> i, i think people hear the news. they watch t coverage. h but itd to fully comprehend. certaiy, we did not reale that our government would be so ill-prared. we knew long ago what china was experiencing. i think it, the, there was a false assumption that that's somebody else's problem. would not happen to us. of attitude that people hadind

about many other epidemics in the past. we, we knew, if this thing blews up, it wouldcontinue to spread. >> smith: wuhan, a major commercial hub in central china. the first case was identified here on november 17.ri (siren bla)at no one knew wht was. but just a few weeks later, it was clear something was wrong. amy qin reported from china for the "new york times." >> in december, there were starting to be these patients that were trickling into theses hospit wuhan with this pneumonia that doctors were really puzzled by. it was unclear how to treat them. neey were giving them di and they weren't getti better, and they were still running these very high temperatures. and the rumor was that this is a virus that people need to be

aware of. >> smith: throughout december, more and more people continued to come into wuhan hospita with high fevers and coughs. then, on december 30, a 34-year-old ophthalmologist at han central hospital, dr. li wenliang, logged on to a group chat with some fellow medical school classmates. he was worried. have you seen the record of what was said, what he was saying? >> yes. really wasn't that outrageous statement he made or anything, just simply said that, "i heard in our hospital there are cases of sars-like symptoms." >> smith: liu baifang schell and her husband, orville, are ngtime china experts. and that was enough to bring the authorities down on him. yes. >> the public security bureau came a made him sign a confession, and ma him agree

th, to be quiet. and that's a veratening thing, because the public security bureau is no joke. it's a secret police force, and people are fearful of it. ur in china, there's an entire system of onlineillance, in which they can nitor what's happening, and i think, in this case, they would've been able to use certain key words to track what people were sayg. and tually, local authorities,ha the polive broad powersin to look the personal hassages of its citizens. >> smith: local authorities issued a formal directive ordering other doctors not discu the mysterious pneumonia. (reporters speaking chinese):

>> smith: despite the silencing of dissent, chinese scientists we working to map the genome of the virus. >> covid-19 was very quickly sequenced, and very y, people discerned that it was about 80% related to the sarsco navirus. but given the speed of the subsequent spread, it should have been apparent to all that there mustave been human-to-human transmission. >> smith: it surprises me to see that as of january 12,orld health organization issued a s statement saying, "there clear evidence of human-to-human saansmission." >> they certainl that, but, you know, they weren't on the ground. they were probab recounting what was reported back to them by the china cdc. >> smith: shouldn't they have known? >> well, they should have been king tough questions. this was obviously an epidemic that was being spread by humans.

>> smith: but with lunar new year around the corner, no one wanted to spoil the festivities. >> (speaking chinese): ak (man sg chinese): >> (speaking chinese): (people talking in background) >> chinese new year everyear is a really festive time. this is the time when everyone gets together with theirth families and ir neighborhoods, and in one neighborhood in wuhan, called baibuting, they had organized this large banquet, at which 40,000 families ended up attending. >> if you have a bigio celebr you don't want to have bad news. and the same holds for the. chinese new ye if you bring up bad news during that time period, it is said that you'll be cursed with bad happenings for the rest oft.

>> smith: making matters worse, millions of people left wuhan in thiperiod to visitt friends and family across the country and beyond. >> (speaking chinese): >> (speaking chinese): >> smith: it wasot until january 20 that the chinese health ministry declared what was already obvious.th virus was spreading from >> some ominous developments out of china. officials there have just confirmed the first human-to-human transmission of coronavirus. it's a huge sty... >> the w.h.o. did not ce the prospect of human-to-human transmissionlmost two months after this thing began. and it was two weeks aft taiwan had warned them that

there s human-to-human transmission. >> wuhan, china, ground zero for the outbreak, now under lockdown. >> smith: by january 23, wuhan was placed on lockdown. >> all trains and planes out of that city halted just tonight. >> eerie for a city 11 million people call home. >> smith: it was then that people around the world began to take notice. >> i perfectly remember the moment in which we start fearing this issue, and it was when weha seen all those caterpillar building a new hospital in just less than ten days. >> smith: dr. stefano fagiuoli heads thdepartment of medicine at a hospital in bergamo, italy. a >> it's lace far away from us. so it was all tv show.bu then, i remember i was having a meeting with some colleagues, and i said"look, but if they are building a whole hospital, there must be somethinbeyond our

perception." and i said, "ihink we need to be prepared." >> two new coronavirus cases have been confirmed here in singapore. >> (speaking italian): >> smith: in fact, by early february, cases began showingco up in othetries, including the u.s. coronavirus officially hitting the u.s.... >> a ninth person has testedti po for coronavirus... >> this is now the third case in ontario, fourth case in canada... (voices overlapping) >> smith: meanwhe, dr. li wenliang, the wuhan doctor who had warned of the deadly virus at the end of december, had been hospitalized a little over a week after he was ordered to stay quiet. (device beeping) by late january, he was on a ventilator, struggling to breathe. by february 7, he was dead.

his death was really a shock. and at that time, that was the lowest point in china's battle with the epidemic.h and his deally put a human face on the cost of it. >> mith: when news of dr. li's death surfaced, chinese social media exploded in outrage. >> he, he told pple truth >> smith: it got theer. attention of dr. zhong nanshan, an 83-year-old highly respected pulmonologist, a top adviser to the govement. >> and then he passed away. >> smith: he now dared to defy t party. >> i think the majority of the hero of china.e is, he is the >> smiththat seemed m unusual to hear somebody that is an authority like that to criticize the government. >> well, dr. zhong nshan,

i mean, the reason why he has so much credibility with the public is bause he's willing to pus back against the government and criticize the government when it's necsary. i thk he was speaking, just saying what most people in china feel. >> this is chinese doctor. i suppose majority of chines doctor actually like him. (blowing whistles) >> everyone would go out onto their balconies and turn the lights off and hold their cell phones u (whistles blowing)as it weally incredible to see.

>> smith: a month earlier, the trumps greeted the new yearo inda. ♪ they hosted a big party at their mar-a-lago mansion. >> tonig, a new year, and an impeachment trial looming. >> family members, honored guestsand hundreds of members of president trump's private club. >> our country has never done better than it's doing right now. we have the best unemployment mbers, we have the best employment numbers. almost 160 million people are working. of the world.s really e talk everybody's talking about it. f"ank you very much. ("hail to the ch playing) smith: but that weekend the director of the centers for disease control, dr. robert redfield, received a phone callr the american cdc office in china.

>> i was actually on a vacation seth my children, their sp and my 11 grandchildren up in deep creek, maryland, and i did get notified from our cdc china office on new year's eve that there was a clter of cases of a unspecified pneumonia in wuhan, cna, that seemed to be linked to a seafood market. >> smith: the call was one of several that interrupt his vacation. >> and if you talk tmy wife, she said i spent most of the time on the phone talking to... >> smith: on january 3, redfield called his chinese coterpart, dr. george gao. >> it got to the poi thatld redf counterpart even breaks down crying during one of the conversations that he hasth im. >> smith: michael shear is a white house correspondent for the "new york times." >> uh, which underscores for, for redfield the seriousness of what the chinese believe att that point tey're dealing with. th the memory of e previous

viral infections-- sars and another one called mers-- they really ravaged that part of the worl so i think what you can, whatu n probably draw from it is a, is a bit of the anety on the part of the doctor sitting there in china, thinking to, himself, "geat if this is as bad as sars? what if it's worse?" y >> smith: shear stands bs reporting, but redfield told me that gao was not very alarmed. >> he feltretty confident that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission, and that really was tent of it. >> smith: so he wasn't very concerned. if there was no human-to-human transmission confirmen he wasn't very concerned at that point? >> back in january thie frame-- third through sixth time frame-um, there was not a sense of urgency from him. >> smith: but redfield was concerned, and called his boss,

alex azar, secretary of health and human services. he also notified the national secuty council at the whe house. the president had already begun receiving daily iefings from the u.s. intelligence community. some contained warnings of a serious contagion withire economic and social consequees. >> they call it the pdb, the presidt's daily briefing. and the virus begins to pop up in those, just a sort of, hey, you know, this could be something, and we should keep an eye on it. >> smith: you say it's in his brief, we know that he doesn't always read his brief. right. >> smith: so what do we know about... ueen did the president know? >> that's a goodion about whether or not he might have actually read it. he's never been cleaof the times that he's been asked, and i think our reporting suggests that, um, as you say, it's, it't not cleall that he reads the briefing. >> smith: and thpresident now says he was distracted. >> i mean, i got impeached. i think, you know, i certainly

devoted a little time tout thinking at, right? >> smith: and busy securing a big trade deal with china. >> a rare moment of collaboration after more than two years of acrimonious talks. >> smith: during this period, azar was trying to alert the president, but couldn't gea meeting. instead, over two weeks passed before he goa call back from mar-a-lago on a saturday. and the prident wanted to discuss something else >> the president was not reached by secretary azar until january 18. and the president's first concern at that time was to ta about e-cigarettes. >> smi: stephen morrison ishe th policy expert who has long warned that america was unprepared for a pandec like this one. >> and secretary azar was having a hard time conveying the gravity of the situation to the president. >> smith: this is 18 days aftere the chinese ment has recognized that they are seeing deathsrom this, and it takes 18 days for azar to get to the

president. >> correct. >> smith: was that the president's first true briefing on this? th as far as i know, it wa first serious high-level discussion. >> smith: buit is unclear how much azar pressed the president. he declined to be interviewed. according to micha shear, azar actually reassured the president that he didn't need to worry. >> what azar wanted to communicate tohe presidentot was, "wehis. we're not, we're not taking this lightly. cdc is on it, a is on it. we're moniring it closely." but also not, like, "we all have to panic and shut the cotry down."an i at this point, it's really, everybody is in the eyde of, you know, this... "we gotta keep aon this." >> are there worries about a >> no, not at all.oint? and we have it under control. it's, uh, gonna be just fi. >> smith: as late as january 26, dr. anthony fauci, the nation's top infectious disease dangers., downplayed the

>> the american people should not be worried or frightened by this. it's a very, very low risk to the united states because we have ways of preparing, of screening of pple coming in. but it's something that we, as public health officials, need to take very seriously. >> smith: a prominent biostatistician, nicholas jewell, had been tracking thevi s for over a month. >> there was still a remarkable lack of urncy in the western world. that this was actually almost inevitably going to reach their shores, and that it was going to be potentially catastrophic unless we took major steps. so there's no questionn my mind that we lost the time that we had gained from the early warning coming out of china. >> smith: on january 29, white house economic adviser peter navarro sent the president a lethy memo warning there w a risk of massive lo of life. he urged fghts from china to

be halted. the next day, secretary azar had a second call with the president. this time, he was more concerned.he arned the president that that thecoronavirus might become a serious pandemic. >> the virus has been spread rapidly over the last month. >> smith: the president respond by restricting some flights from and millions of people had already left wuhan, anyway. and many of those people we flying out to the rest of the world. >> yes, in fact, there are direct flights from wuhan to many cities in the u.s. and that was happeningro hout the month of january, >> smith: so those are extremely important weeks. >> yes. >> smith: in fact, in the nth before president trump's decision to restrict flights, an

estimated 380,000 people entere s. from china. en afterwards, if you were an american, you were exempted. and flights from europe were not restricted for another six weeks. furthermore, asymptomatic carriers were not detected. one of the things that they didn't know at the time was, even if even if a pers isn't symptomatic, doesn't have a fever, maybe that person is still spreading the virus all over the place because they have it, and they're just not showing symptoms yet. >> smith: the virus couldsp ad undetected. restricting flights ed to be a half measure. >> those of us who study viruses knew that we're gonna be hit in ware in the u.s. we had lost six weeks sittingin on the sidwatching china struggle, and watching other countries struggle, thinking that if we shut our borders, uh,

'll, we'll be fine. >> smith: jeremy konyndyk, a specialist in global health issues, remembers meeting th some trump administration officials around this time. in, um, february, you sat down with some administration c officials,orrect? >> so, it was an off-the-record dinner, so i can't say too muchf spally about it, but it was very clear that most of the administration wased on-- enforcing the, the travel restrictions on china, tracking people who had come backrom there, quarantining people-- that was the, the ball that they had their eye on at that time. >> smith: what's wrong with that? >> well, what... i was, i was quite gobsmacked by that, because, to my mind, thebi est priority at that point was not preventing it from coming here, becau it was inevitable that it would come here. you know, it's fine to try and y keep it out, b have to do so with the expectation that at best, you're buying time. >> smith: the problem was that

the administration was failing to understand the basic math behind a pandemic. >> if i tell you there's 30 cases in the united states,ot that'soing to scare you. that's not going to cause you to shut dn your cities. if i tell you there're 60 cases in the united states, you still el very comfortable. 120, 240, and so on. you don't feel the power of exponential growth until it's s absolutenning. so when you say, "oh, if there are 10,000 cases in the united states, then we ought to pay attention," the trouble is, in two or three days nos 20,000. within another two or three's days, 6 times. so it takes a long time to ramp up exponential growth, but once it gets your attention, it's stunning in its speed. >> smith: in new york city, an infectious disease specialist with new york-presbyterian hospital started to see cases

he suspected of beg covid-19 by mid-february.te >> we stto hear that there were a lot of viral illnesses that we were not able to entify. i started hearing conversations, suggestions from a lot of the community doctors in our area, that maybe we were seeing rly spread here. >> sth: during this time, the president is saying everything's under control. people that want to get a test can get a test, that this is going to disappear when thes weather wa. how did you take that in at the time? >> you kno it was tough, because, you know, as clinicians, when you get the sense something is gn, you're waiting for the ability to conrm that. but most of the response was, "you know what? until we see a large number of cases, we don't want to errespond. we don't want to be, you know, the boy who cried wolf." >> smith: in fact, tere people who thought you were a little bit out there. wrong with"what

dr. griffin?" >> well, that was, uh, that was actually when i reacd out to one of the, um, other infectious disease physicians in the area, anid, "hey, we really should start communicating and preparing."an umyeah, his response to one of my partners was, "what's wrong with dr. griffin?" "why, why is he, like, getting so worked up about t notsmith: dr. griffin wa alone. many doctors and scientists were increasingly conrned that america was not prepared. among the first countries outside china to face the coronavirus was south korea. their response is now study in how to hand an outbreak. back in 2015, the middle east respiratory syndrome, or mers,

had scared them. s i spoke th korea's foreign minister, kang kyung-wha.he >>essons from the mers experience, uh, was, wasme instal. seeds for the succis time.he >> smith: officials called an emergency meeting. withust four known cases of covid-19 in the whole couny, health care officials summoned 20 private companies on january 27 to a nference room inside seoul's central train station. >> the train station in seoul is not just a train station. it's a multifunction complex. and so, if you want to bring in exrts from all across the country and have a quick meeting, this would be the ideal place. >> smith: dr. hyuk-min yi was at the meeting and headed the

itiative. >> smith: the meetg, the meetg was tense. >> yeah-- yeah, yeah. smith: it was tense because no one knew how contagious the virus was and hoh much time theyad. >> smith: based on the experience with mers, the number of infected people could be doubling eve few days. r in a mat weeks, sout korea could be looking at over

100,000 cases. moving fast, just days after the train station meeting, four companies had developed covid test just over a week later, one was approv for use. by february 7, 46 labs across the country began to test people. a process that oinarily could take a year had been completeder in just week. there were only four cases when they had their meeting and, and call to action.t' >> tright. and, you know, they recognized how dangerous this was, and even if all you have e four cases, that is a dangerous moment. >> smith: they tested aroundil 10,000 people >> they then swung into action very decisively, and set up this enormous testing regime along with very robust tools for monitoring cases and tracing

contacts and isolating and quarantining people based on that. they began acting before it seemed like they needed to do so. >> smith: former head ofa. u.d. dr. rajiv shah was was able to do.at south korea >> they have just deployed an army of community health personnel o are spraying purell on, on people going in and out of the subway, who are contact points, who are making drive-through testing available very broadly by doing swab collections and and maing it in to a public health laboratory construct, where, uh, and reference labs that can validate the data quickly. >> smith: they thought everything was under control. >> south korea appears to be attening the curve. >> south korea has done better than most of the other >> smith: they had onlyrld. 30 cases. >> the lowest number of new cases... >> a leader in the global fight

against the new coronavirus. working.hing they're doing >> smith: then, on february 18, they identified a 61-year-old woman in daegu, south korea. at the tim they had discovered no other cases in daegu, but h when they trac contacts, it led them here. the shincheonji church, a christian sect that claims over 200,000 members who believe that their lear, this man, is the messiah. (audience cheering) officials knew they had a big problem. >> it became obvious that this was a cluster that was at risk, and then we decided to trace is about 9,000, 10 people.this >> smith: so, you tested 9,000 members of the chuh? a >> n of them, but we

contacted them to the extent that they were traceable, asked the percentage of positives among them were much higher than any other gr >> smith: health officialsun fothat thousands of church members were positive, and they were quarantin. dozens would die. today, south korea, along with japan, taiwan and vietnam, has managed to control the spread the virus better than most countries. in seoul, a crowded city of ten million people, there have been just four known deaths. in the country of south korea, how many deaths, approximately? it would be 260... 264. >> smith: the number has now crept up to around 300.

by mid-january, the cdc was busy, diagnostic test.n >> good morning, everyone. >> smith: on january 28, secretary azar announced they were ready to go. >> this is really a historicnt accomplish within oneeek, within one week, the cdc had invented a rapid diagnostic test. within weeks... feeling really goot thee, i was process. >> smith: scott becker is the c.e.o. of the association ofbs public health >> we were gonna be able to cover the country to aood extent for the surveillance and early tection that was really job one. >> smith: but that optimism evaporat by the end of the first week in february. >> it was sunday morning, february 8.p i wokea little bit late. i read my texts and my emails,

and i start seeing theseages. (email alerts ringing) "we're having a problem." "is anyone else seeing this?" i call that an "osm," it was my "oh, (bleep)" moment. and i remember thinking, "oh, my god, wait till governors and others find out about this. we're all counting on getting testing up and running, and what a nightmare this is gonna be." (telephone ringing) so, it was pretty devastating to everyone-- the cdc sff to public health labs to health community.the public you know, we were left without the biggest tool in our toolbox. >> government ficials discovered contamination in a cdc lab in atlanta...he >> smith: by a diagnostic test developed by german scientists was available om the w.h.o.

but u.s. officials would insisto it was betteind an american solution. >> any of these groups can submit their testing kits rough our regulatory ocesses, but without that and without a plan, we are not going to accept tests that have not been studied by us. >> good answer, that's a good answer. smith: is that excusable, thathey failed to have a tes ready to go? >> that's inexcusable, in my book. i mean, how can you distribute something that is so critical to monitor the epidemic, and then havet be faulty? we cannot distribute drugs like we cannot distribuer fda-approved tests in that fashion. t t's certainly inexcusable, and it, it set us back, uh, for a good month, i would say. >> smith: is it unusual to have a glitch in the initial tests? >> i have not seen another mistake like this at cdc. the tests have rolled out very effectively, uh, without ach gln the past.

>> smith: tom frieden was head of the cdc durg the obama administration. is there any bigger misstep or stumble here than the failure to test? >> i think, when we look back at what went right and what went wrong, we're going to focus on february. what should have gotten done in februaryhat didn't happen. f >> so st question to you is, uh, doeshe cdc's test for coronavirus work? >> yeah, uh, the pblem washe in, whenest was sent to the states, one of the components had a contaminant in it. >> smith: i asked dr. redfield why south korea succeeded where the u.s. faile >> korea had already developed private-public partnerships through the mers thing, and really had invested enorusly appropriately, and that' what our nation had not done over the last 30 years. so, you won't get argument from me that the public healthe workfos been really

underinvested in for decades. >> the cdc now says it's now going to send improved tests to the labs facing problems. >> smith: weeks were lost while the cdc remanufactured the tests. if the failure at the cdc and the outbreaks in china and south korea did not instill more urncy, the february outbre in iran should have. this is qom, a place of pilgrimage for shiite muslims from all over the world, including china. it was here that the world's next major outbreak ofth virus erupted. from the beginning, iran's leaders, like america's, played down the dangers. a mixture of religion and national pride hadelayed iran's response. iran would soon be reporting the

world's highest mortality rate. >> we never thought iran wouldne bef the first countries hit, uh, by the pandemic. but for whatever reason, because of our contacts or because of other reasons, we were one of the first countriesi >> smith: i was able to reach iran's foreign minister, javad zarif, in tehran. it was 6:00 in the morning my time.why do you tnk you were so hard-hit? what, what are the theories now? >> well, nobody knows. i mean, uh, it was at a time when, uh, more than anything, the population was unprepared. >> smith: in fact, it was natural that iran would be hitwi a virus from china. it is not only that chinese pilgrims come here. iran faces tough u.s. economic sanctions, and as a result, china has become iran's lifeline to the outside world. >> (laughing)

(cameras clicking) >> smith: kamiar alaei iranian health care expert living in exile in the u.s. >> smith: the flights were on c iran's largerier, mahan air. but zarif told me that iran canceled its flights from china at the same time as america did. >> i think we were one of the first, uh, to limit flights and to screen passengers. >> smith: the americans cut flights to, from china at the end of january. >> my information is that our

decision was made basically in the same timeone as the others. >> smith: yet one analysis ofht flecords shows that mahan air flew over 55 round-trip f flights to am china between february 5 and february 23. they flew on to iraq, syria, turkey, lebanon, and oth countries. all the while, iran's supremela leader, ayatkhamenei, virus.continue to downplay the at one point, he said it was possibly a biological attack. >> (speaking farsi): >> smith: do you agree with the supreme leader that the coronavirus was perhaps aal biologttack by the united states upon iran? >> well, there are a lot of

speculations on all sides about is, i said it's not unreasonable to believe that. (siren wailing) (people talkg in background) >> smith: talk of a biogical attack was a distraction. (machinery beeping) tehran's hospitals were overwhelmed. on social media, people were seen collapsing in the streets. >> (man speaking farsi): >> (speaking farsi) >> smith: the governmeo delayed the closing of parliament. at least 23 seni government figures caught the coronavirus.d

reportedly, ar dozen senior officials died. iraj harirchi, the deputy health minister, appeared at this press conferen conference clearly ill, while denying he had the coronavirus. >> he said, "no, this is just, you know, common cold. it's not a serious thing." >> smith: the next day,te however, hed positive and was hospitalized. many of iran's faithl continued to deny the seriousness of the situation. >> (speaking farsi): >> smith: it wasn't untimarch 16 that the government closed qom's shrines.

(crowd shouting, clamoring) >> (speaking farsi): (men shouting) >> it took some time for us to close the shrines. we he a very tradional society, wh people who still do not agree with us. >> smith: by then, government officials had began enforcing social distancing and stay-at- home orders. today, iran has re over 180,000 cases and 9,000 deaths. ♪ (horn honks) (people talking in background) ou>> smith: coronavirus sh have been no surprise. the world has seen an increasing number of viral outbreaks in

recent years. >> ...official tells us that there may already bedreds more fatalities than have been reported. >> smithin 2014, the deadly ebola epidemic was a big wake-up call. >> this is an epidemic of dysfunctional health systems. smith: jeremy konyndyk led the u.s. government's effort to fight it. >> it was a monumeal effort to bring that outbreak under control. i think all of us who were involved in that effort looked back at that and said, "wow, a truly airborne or droplet-style respiratory pandemic is going to be so much worse and so much more difficult." and so there was a real urgency in the final years of the obama administration to begin laying more groundwork for that kind of a scenario. >> smith: to addss potential threats like this, the obama white house organized pandemic response team inside the national security council, the nsc. >> we have to put in place an infrastructure so that if and when a new strain of flu like

the spanish flu crops up, five yems from now or a decade f now, we've made the investment. >> smith: but in 2018, after trump tapped john bolton to head thnsc, the pandemic resp team was reorganized. its memberwere reassigned. its leader, admiral timothy ziemer, left bolton has maintained that he was simplytreamlining bloated nsc operations, and that it did not rt america's pandemic response. but lastear, stephen morrison headed a bipartisan effort to address america's pandemic response capacity. his report, released in november 2019, recommended the pandemic response team be moved back to the white house. >> we live in an era in which we're seeing increasing rapidity od increasing velocity and increasing impacthese new

pathogens coming at us. this is the condition of our microbial universe today. >> a sars-like virus has now spread into japan. m e than 10,000 people died from h1n1. a >> the iat you would disband your capacity willfully at the whiteouse, aware of the developments of the last two decades, which were convincingly that we needed to be prepared, and far better prepared, on ais cont and sustained and coherent basis. >> smith: what's the explanation that would be ven? >> well, i can't speak for i presume that they wanted to over, out of t white house, to the secretary of hhs and to those who worked underneath him. >> smith: so what's wrong with that decision to move this capacity over to the hhs? >> the mistake there is to assume that the secretary of hhs is able to see the full picture

and be able to command the different elements of our government to respond in coordinated and coherent and integrated way. um, that can only happen, uh, through an empowered entity at the white house. so, by definition, we set ourselves up for alow and sluggish response. a slow, sluggish, and halting response. ♪ >> smith: e virus was about to slam into europe. >> (chanting, singing) >> smith: on february 19, a championship soccer match was set to kick off in italy's largest stadium.... capacity: 75,0 (crowd singing, cheering)

>> (yelling) >> smith: the atalanta team from beeamo, in mbardy, won th game. >> atalanta had made it four-nil. (crowd cheering)te >> smithafrwards, bergamo became the epiceer of italy's outbreak. (crowd cheering, clamoring) >> smith: dr. stefano fagiuoliem of bergamo rembers. >> i had ten colleagues from our hoital which went to see and ten of them, they all got infected. >> smith: oh, my god. when i spoke to dr. giuoli, he was quarantined at home after catching the virus himself. >> it's interesting that the two main outbreak in spain are close to madrid and valencia, which was the other, the opponent team. >> smith: in the bng, italy, like e ina and iran, was slow to react.an dr. marco veis an anesthesiologist in turin.

>> we, we were condu really, the usual, a normal lifea social life in the las week of february. and it is really difcult to implement the social distancing measures when you don't have your hostals already overwhelmed by patients. (siren wailing) >> smith: but they were losing valuable time. flights were cut from china, but, as in the u.s., italy hesitated to do more. the job was left up to town mayors. >> (speaking itali): >> (speaking italian): >> (speaking italian): >> they became viral on social media. people, i think, uh, realized quite soon that, uh, this was a others.protect them and protect (man speaking italian):

>> probably this happened maybe a couple of weeks lateran because what, whatow is that if you implement some real stringent social distancing measures at the beginning of the surge, and since this is an exponential surge, jt maybe 24 or 48 hourearlier is enough to avoid more than 30 or 40% of the number of infected people three weeks later. (piano playing) >> smith: the closing of flights fr china had done little to stem the spread. in january, the government of italy was celebrating a new hiinitiative to increase cnese tourism. two chinese tourists from wuhan arrived in milan on january 23. they tested positive a week

later. the virus was already here. >> italy's surge in cases nowgg marks the t coronavirus outbreak outside of asia. >> with the deattoll leaping by more than 50% in one day... w italy is the hardest-hit country in europh more than 7,300 reported infections. >> smith: was there a moment in time when this really seized your attention? >> in, in my case, personally, it was that skype call from the task force in lombardia. from this friend of mine. he told me, "i have seen scenes in hospitals that i will never forget in my whole life." he described the hospitals with, uh, people in hallways and people dying outside of were not enough ambulances, or ambulances were in a queue ouide of the hospitals.

>> smith: hospitals in italy's north were overwhelmed. there were not enough let alone ventilators. >>n, in a condition with a severe shortage of resources, and maybe you have ten peoe and only one or twilatorsand, available. >> smith: and they need to be nced by younger people that have a greater cof survival, right? y >>h. >> smith: the government did not order a nationwideockdown until march 9. (people talking in background) >> smith: to date, over 34,000 italians have di of covid-19. seeing what was happening around the world, top american public health officire increasingly convinced that halting flights from china was

not enough. >> ihink most health officials agree at at best, it delays, and as the secretary says, kind of pauses things. >> smith: dr. fauci and twohe officials planned to confront the president on february 26. >> a broad pandemic throughout the world, travel restrictions are not gonna help. you can't just travel-restrict everyone. >> the public health offic redfield, anthony fauci at the n.i.h., stephen hahn at fda, they had all decided that was gonna be the day they were gonna tell the president, "hey, look, we need to, we need to be more aggressive here." >> smith: but before they messonnier, a top ficial, spoke out publicly. >> tonight, the cdc is calling the coronavirus a "tremendous health threat." >> we are working to rdy our public health workforce to isspond to local cases, and the the possibility utbreak could become a pandemic. >> smith: was a dire warning. >> the virus has killed more than 2,200 people and infected infected nearly 77,000 worldwide.

>> smith: the president wasay on hiso india. >> thank y, mr. president. >> smith: there, he reassuring. >> you may ask about the, uh, coronavirus, which is, uh, very well under control in our country. we, uh, have very few people with it. >> smith: but as he prepared to return home, msonnier spoke to reports again. >> ultimately,e expect we will see community spread in this country. it's not smuch a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe >> federal health officials sa today that coronavirus wil certainly begin spreading... >> it is not a question of "if," but "when." >> as nancy messonnier is giving this briefing to reporters, the president is just gettinon air force one in india to fly home. so, as he's flng home, the stock market crashes a thousand points.

>> wall street continues to sell on those coronavirus fears, the dow falling close to 900od points... >> tv is broadcasting notop about how this is gonna change the way americans live, and of course, the president hadn't been briefed on any of this., the time air force one lands, wednesday morning on the 26th, he's fuming. he's angry. the big economic success that he's constantly touting is under assault, from his viewpoint. he picksp the phone and lls azar, yells at azar, says, "you're scaring people to death here. what's going on?" but the, buthe big consequencof, of that is that the briefing that the public health officials had intended to do for trump, that evening after he had returned, that briefing never happens. >> smith: angry with his public to meet with them.rump refused talk of more aggressive measures, such as stay-at-home orders and strict social distancing, was put off.

messonnier's warnings were >> they then, the next day, dedicated an entire presidential press conference to walking back the, the warning and the asssment that she had given. >> thank you very much, everybody. thanyou very much. >> and with the benefit of a month's hindsight, she was 100% right. wshe accurately anticipatt was about to happen. she tried to warn the country of that. and, uh, the white house tried to furiously walk it back. >> mr. president, the cdc said yesterday that they believe it's inevitable that the vill spad in the united states, and "when."t a questn of "if" but do you agree with that assessment? >> well, i don't think it's inevitable. will, it could be at a veryly small level or it could be at we at a larger level. whatever happense totally prepared. we have the best people in the world. >> as someone who served in government, i can tell you, that kind of behavior sends a very, vet clear signal to governm workers about what is and is not permissible to say.mi >>: it's interesting that it's very much like what happened in china in late

december and early january. >>he parallels are very, a very striking. i think it's immensely irresponsible ofeople in this administration to be blaming china for that kind of behavior eveney have engaged in it themselves. >> smith: dr. nancy messonnier would be sidelined.al azar was removed as head of the task force. he was replaceby vice president pence. >> mike is gonna be in charge, and mike will report back to me, but he's got a certain talent for this, and, uh, i'm gonna asa mike pence ta few words, please, thank you-- mike? >> smith: what talent vicenc president was bringing was not clear. >> thank you, mr. president. >> smith: when he was governor of indiana, he had slashed the state's public health budget. s asunch evangelical christian, he had questioned >> so you don't feel like you're being replaced? >> not in the least, i'm, i... >> he's not. >> when the, when this was

mentioned to me, i said i was delighted that i get to have the vice president helping in this way-- delighted, absolutely. >> smith: the ily press briefings became a platform for the president's positive messaging. >> you are hearing the linefo that the risamericans is low, which comes from everybody's mout from the president on down. >> how should americans prepare for this virus? should they go on with their daily lives, change their route? what should, what should they do? >> well, i hope they don't change their routine, but maybe, anthony, i'll let you, uh, i'll let you answer tt, or bob? if you want to answer... >> sure, mr. president. thank you. i think 's really important that, as i said, the risk at this time is low. the american public eds to go on with their normal lives. >> smithyou said, february 29, "the risk at this time is low. the american public needs to go on with their normal lives." >> it was true at that time, martin i think the risk was low. >> smith: but by this time, china had had an outbreak.

iran was ithe midst of a major outbreak, as was italy.ay and you'reg, "at this time, the risk is low." >> yeah, well, the risk was low to the general american public at the time. >> smith: but the fact is that we had stumbled in fy to test adequately, to test enough people to know where things were going. y how can you at when we had such inadequate testing? >> well, the purpose, i'm sure, of your documentary is to help identify lessons and correct them so we don't repeat this. many of us are in the arena, arere, as teddy roosevelt would say, we'red and bloody. uh, we're trying to dare greatly. hopefully, at best, we'll know the triumpof high achievement, and, you know, at worst, we'll fail by daring greatly. (crowd cheering) >> smith: throughout february, the president had continued to hold his rallies. >> hello, phoenix.ll

las vegas. great to be with you. where else would you like to be but a trump rally, right? (crowd cheering) >> smith: he blamed others for exaggerating the threat. >> now the democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. you know that, right? coronavirus. they're politicizingt. and this is their new hoax. >> smith: the present would f not ca social distancing for another two and a half weeks. >> we have leaders throughout uamuch of january and febr saying that this is a hoax. >> 35,000 people on average die each year from the flu. did anyone know that? 35,000. and so far, we have lost nobody to coronavirus in the ited states. >> it's a complete denial of science, and leading to all sorts of decisions that are harmful to o country, to our

planet. >> smith: you're quoting the president.ad hethese comments. is it your view that he knew better than th, or was he simply misinformed? >> i cannot psychoanalyze the president, but we know that he, he has a tendency toto believe he's the best at everything.an he probably thinks he's better than the scientists. >> and you wonder, the press is in hysteria mode, fake news, and their camera just went off. (crowd jeering) the camera. >> ihink if he were practicing medicine, he would be negligent, and heould be prosecuted. >> the president's behavior, the presidens resort to repeated falsehoods, is a function of the way he is approaching this crisis. he's approaching this crisis about how it affects his own political survivability and re-electability. >> uh, this is a list of, uh,

the different countries. united states is rated number one, most prepared. i would equate it to something like seeing a hurricane offshore that has just taken out a couple ofis caribbeands and is strengthening to category 5 as it heads for florida, and no bothering to tell people to get off the beach and board their ndows. and only starting to do that when you see the storm surge it's, of course, far too late. >> smith: the first covid-19 death to be recognized in america was on february 29, near seattle. it was followed by a cluster of cases in a nursing home. but the big bomb would land onw rk city. of from the suburew rochelle, 20 miles north of the city, an estate lawyer commutly by train in to his office in

midtown manhattan. ♪ in late february, he started feeling sick. on february 27, he checked himself into a new york presbyterian hospital in bronxville, new york. lawrence garbuz tested positive on march 2. >> the man in his 50s lives in westchester, but works in manhattan. >> new york city health department says he is in severeo ition. now, the entire family in quarantine. >> smith: for dr. griffi who had been seeing patients gath covid-like symptoms since mid-february, thuz case confirmed what he had suspected all along. >> this gentleman had not acquired it in the new yorkly area. >> smith: dr. griffin had been pressing for more testing for eks. >> mm-hmm. >> smith: but because of a lack of testg capacity, he says the cdc told him he could only test garbuz's immediate contacts. >> bye.

so, our impression at this point, in the end of february, beginning of march, is that weal ready had community transmission of covid-19 in the new york area. but you're only letting us test people that have had contact with this man. we don't thinke got it in new rochelle. we suspect he got it commuting to a from the city. we would like to start testing all these people with respiratory symptoms that we n't have a diagnosis for >> smith: what's their response? >> we still have our rigid criteria. um, unless someone is really severely ill, they need to have a direct contact or a travel history. >> smith: and what's your >> our response isink this gentleman got it in the community. we think there's community, spred we would like to do broader testing. >> smith: but you're not allowed to. >> we're not allowed to. ♪ >> smith: jessica caro is a nurse who works at a new york

presbyterian clinic. >> we first heard the news of the laer from new rochelle getting sick, and that scared me, because i live, like, maybe a ten-minute drive away from there.th >> sher 16-year-old daughter jiaa was the first one in her family to get sick. >> she was complaining to me that she had a fever. and, younow, nurse mom was just, like, throwing her some motrin and saying, you know, "you'll be fine. you'll be fine." and i finally got a thermometer on her. i almost dropped it 'cause it was 105. not 100.5, it was 105. >> smith: wanting to get her daughter tested, jessica called new york's covid hotline. >> thank you for calling the new york sta covid-19 hotline. >> smith: eventually, she got a live person on the line, butit idn't help. >> this man was like, "has your daughter traveled to china?" i'm like, "no."s he's like, "wed contact with somebody that's positive?" i'm like, "well, we don't know." d the last question was, "is she short of breath?" and i'm like, ell, not currently, but she's very sick." and the man tells me, "well, if

she's not short of breath, she doesn't qualify.ng i remember hp the phone, and just, like, i could feel the heat coming off of m just how angry i was. wa >> smith: thera shortage of tests across america.-w dr. susabutlruns a clinical microbiology lab in los angeles. >> testing was very restricted. you have to get approval from your local public health authority in order to be able tn do that te and they then have to coordinate with the cdc to get approval to do the testing. so it was a very arduous process. >> smith: because of shortas, the cdc limited who qualified for a test. >> at one point, t testing was limited to people coming in from mainland china. but viruses don't respect borders. they don't respect anything like always way behind because of that.

it wasn't probably until later in january, february, that i really started to feel like even if the public health labs were able to offer this testing, it's just not sufficient. we're not gonna be able to respond to something of this magnitude. (birds chirping) >> smi: i've talked to a number of doctors, and they say, "look, if i couldn't tell them that my patient habeen to china, they couldn't get ate ." >> yeah, that's a decision that's made individually by each wanted to do that. how the i will say that early on, inryjs that were recognized in the united states we largely linked to wuhan, china, and so those were the case criteria as this new epidemic happened. smith: by early march, the cdc allowed for more people to get tests. but shortages persisted, though

not for celebrities. >> eports that kevin durant has been tested positive for the coronavirus. >> on social media, criticism for celebrities who've been tested, like celine di, heidi klum, and reportedly kris jenner. >> whatever it may be, i'm gonna quarantine myself. >> how are non-symptomatic professional athletes getting tests while others are waiting in line? >> smith: we see stars being able to beested, whereeople without means or without celebrity status arenable to get tested. >> yeah. unfortunately, a lot of issues with regard to inequity in our society have really come. but i think that people get a little bit intolerant when it's actually affecting the health of them, their loved es, their children when they realize that, you know, you're concern about your mother. she can't get tested, but a vip can get tested. and i think that during a pandemic, there's meing quite wrong with-with that

occurring.es >> our rponse is among the very wor in the world. certainly among all the majorco tries. >> smith: by the end of the first week in march, there were 337 cases of covid-19 in the u.s., and 17 deaths. bucases were doubling ever several days, and only around 4,000 people had been tested when the president visited the cdc on march 6, he flatly denied there was a shortage. >> anybody right now and sterday... anybody that needs a test gets a test. they're ere; they have the tests, and the tests are beautiful. >> smith: you know, march 6 is the date that you won't forget, where the president came to th cdc. he's wearing the hat, "make america great again," and he states that everyone who wants e can get a test. did he believe that do you >> again, i don't- i'm not gonna comment on what i think the president believed or tadn't believe. >> smith: did yo to him?

did you say to him, "look mr. president, with all due respect, it's not true what you're saying"? >> yeah, i'm not gonna comment c on tversations i've had with the president. >> if there's a doctor that wants to test, if thers somebody coming off a ship, they're all set, they have... >> i remember watching that and thinking i'dike the ability to test patients in my hospital on a much larger scale than what m doing. and i know i can't to that either. so at the time, it didn't reflect the reality of wt i was experiencing as the clinical laboratory director in a hospital. not at all. >> and the tests are all perfect. li t letter was perfect, the transcription was perfect. >> it waa made-for-tv event, um, and it was sound bites. but the reality of the situation was quite different, and i think most americans knew that at the. time >> smith: the president had to ha known >> i would expect that he did. >> smith: but even had there beennough tests, the u.s. nwas facing a shortage ofasal

swabs, masks and oer equipment needed to carry out the tests. d the president placed responsibility on state and local authorities to acquireei own supplies. >> respirators, ventilators, all of the equipment, try getting it yourselves. we will be bacng you, but try getting it yourselves. >> when he says things likthe governors in the stateshould be trying look after their own needs and get these things themlves, what that mes is there is no single picture of what the country needs. >> smith: you're on your own,. boys and gir >> you're on your own, but we're also going to be buying up all the supplies that we told you you need. every state is basically going on ebay and bidding against all the others and against the federal government to try andge the basic supplies that they need. >> smith: by march 11, tre were 1,300 cases in the u.s., and 36 deaths. it was then that president trump decided to expand his travel ban to european countries. >> my fellow americans, to keep

new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from europe to the united states for the next 30 days. >> smith: the xt day, dr. fauci testified before congressd and adhey were still failing to test adequately. >> the system is not really geared to what we need rightu now, what e asking for. that is a failing. >> a failing? yes. >> yeah, it is a failing. let's admit it. >> he was spot on, and i'm glad he said it. somebody had to say it. >> the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that. >> i concur with dr. fauci. we've complete failed. this is a, this is a massive failure. at the end of the day, the whole way that health care is set up in this country is the failure, tooright? th every lab is fighting for itself, every state is fighting for itself, every city is fighting for itself. i mean, that's not what you need in something like this.

>> is it possible that your impulse to put a positive spin things, may be giving americans a false sense of hope? >> no. i don't think so. >> misrepresenting edness right now? >> i don't think so. no, i don't think so. i think that, uh, i think it's got... >> the not-yet approved drugs. >> such a lovely question. >> what do you say to amerans who are scared, though, i guess? nearly 200 dead, 14,000 who are sick, millions, as you witnessed, who are scared right now? what do you say to americansho are watching you rig now who are scared? >> i-i say that you're a terrible reporter.'s thhat i say. go ahead. i think it's a very nasty question, and think it's a very bad signal you're putting out to the american people. ine american people are lo for answers, and they're looking for hope, and you're doing sensationalism... >> smith: by the end of march, there were more than 5,500 deaths. ♪ jessica caro, the clinic nurse, was never able to get her daughter jianna tested.

fortunately, jianna recovered. but two weeks later, jessica aunt amelia spiked a high fever and cough. >> i get a phone call from my mom that my aunt is ill. really scared, becou kept to get hearing the hospitals filling up, and now i'm like, "wait, this is, this not good." >> smith: amelia was hospitalized, but in the mean time, jessica got another ca. >> sheaid, "i have to tell you something, that i have a fever." and i said, "no, mami, please, don't tell me that."d e goes, "yeah, i have a fever, and i started coughing and i'm scared." >> smith: jessica's mother was hospitalized on april 7. the next day, just down the hospital hallway, her sister amelia, jessica's aunt, died. by now, there were over

18,000 deaths froms coronavi america. >> the one time that i spoke to her on the phone, she was very every word was labored, um, and so we, at that point, wereju conversing by text. en but i-i had texted her at some point in the evening, and she hadn't answered me back. worried and next thing you know, i get a text from her. it was, like, rbled gibberish, and then it was, "call me, call me now." and e doctor is g me,as there um, you know, "unfortunately, at this point, we need to intubate." >> okay, thank you. i appreciate it. thank you so much. >> smith: since visting was prohibited, jeica could ly reach her mother through facetime. >> hi, mami. hi, mama, do you hear me? in my heart, i know she was able to hear me, but it was hard to see her like that.

i even promised her that when she got better, i'd take her to her favoritelace, which was the casino. and, um, not being able to, um, be there and hold her hand and let her hear my voice has just been the worst of all of this. mama, i love you. i love you so much. you're so strong and you're i need you to get better mami, okay? >> smithafter 16 days on a ventilator, jessica's mother anne martinez, passed away. it happened on april 23. it was her 80th birthday.♪ ♪ by then, over 50,000 americans had died.5, around0 of them in new yorktate. the bodies were stored in refrigerated trucks

xt to the hospitals. when we interviewed dr. ho on march 31, he described new york this way. >> new york is the new wuhan right now.re there isndous carnage seen in all the hospitals in this area.. they're scar they're overwhelmed. it's like being hit by a tsunami of-of patients. and they're not well-equipped to fight this. >> smith: whdo you blame for this? >> blame the government. i, honestly, i blame theme gove for, um, not alerting us sooner that this was gonna be an issue, not, um, consolidating a nationwide stockpile and not putting people in charge of, uh, giving it to who needs it in an orderly fashion. just being a citizen, not evenbe g a health care professional and watching the news, i can see how just incompetent evething

is. >> smith: jessica caro's mother and aunt immigrated here from the dominican republic. black and latino communities have been the hardest hit. >> blacks and latinos are grossly, disproportionately killed by this virus.mi >> sth: cleavon gilman is an emergency room doctor at neyork-presbyterian. that's just due to that a large majority of us live in housing projects as well. uh, a lot of us are also essential workers, um, mta, officers, grocery clerks, um, and that's just taking a toll om our whole ity. across the city, the virus has been twice as deadly for blacks and latinos as whites, and poverty is also a dangerous risk factor. >> i think this crisis unmasked a tremendous vulnerability in america, where

40, 50, 60% of american households barely get by day-to-day, have lost faith in the american dream for their children, that their kids can do lltter than they can, and-and now our society ave to grapple with and deal with the realy that we can't just hid and pretend that that's not the case anymore. ♪ >>mith: today, the total number of americans who have died is more than 115,000. a columbia university study has calculated that had a stay-at- home order been imsed at the end of february, it would have prevented 83% of all u.s. deaths. 's remarkable to me that in the vietnam war, i think 55,000 american soldiers died, and we're now saying we might see four times that ma people die. >> yep.

it's-it's astounding. people, and in response to that, the country built anfr tructure for protecting against terrorist attacks that co average of $150 to $250 billion a year. we need to take this threat as seriously as weake the threat of terrorism.he um, it hasotential to kill at least as many, if not considerably more, americans, and i hope, coming out of this, whenever we do eventually come out of this, we' finally take seriously the importance of health security and public health investments. (sirens wailing) >> smith: finally, there was the toll on health care workers. in new york, scores ofar health ce workers died of the virus. ♪ new yorkers tried to show their support.da ever thousands went to the streets and to their windows to say thank you.

(cheering, applause) (air horn blowing) (cheing, applause continue) all the while, the number of bodies overwhelmed the city. trucksade their daily runs to a potter's field where the poorest among us are laid to rest. worldwide, the virus has killed more than 430,000 people. in t u.s., a nationwide lockdown has led to the steepest drop in employment since the great depression.

now countries around the worldbe are nning to reopen. health care officials warn of a second wave. >> go to pbs.org/frontline fomore of our coverage of the pandemic. >> (chanting) i can't breathe! >> and listen to o podcast "race, police, and the pandemic" wi historian, jelani cobb. >> from our educational system, our healthre system, like all these things that ultimately culminate in the explosions that we've seen in the past week. >> connect with frontline on facebook and w twitter, andch anytime on the pbs video app or pbs.org/frontline. >> wall street loves a success story. and, john kapoor had a great story to sell. >> his mantra was, by any means necessary, get the job done.

>> the only way that i knew how to do it to get that guarantee, is to bribe doctor >> this is a very dangerous product. if it was misused, it could actually kill people. >> lowoses aren't that muc money higher dose, more money. >> so when i saw them, i felt hope >> narrator: the story of the iraq war told by the civilians whlived it. >> then there was a chaos. >> major combat operations in iraq have ended. >> mission accomplished. yeah seriously? >> narrator: the memories and experiences from those who survived. >> it's very dangerous to forget. because memory all is what's left for us. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. p major support vided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant

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♪ -todayini'm going to be talkabout something really important. i am transgender. ♪ -i realize that this and now, we arelike a . ♪ ♪ -tonight is the premiere for my film, "black dog," and i am so excited. evne i know is here. -oh! look who it is! -whoo! -whoo! [ cheers and applause ] -when i was little, i really wanted to be involved with the film industry, but evecy time i thought of a dr, i thought of peter jackson, and i thought, "oh, my god. i don't want to, like, spend all my life