All language subtitles for The UnXplained s03e10 The Mystery of Plagues.eng

From the plagues of egypt

to the black death,

smallpox,

cholera,

and the spanish flu,

humans have repeatedly
faced contagious diseases

that have the power to
change the course of history.

We like to think that
modern medicine

can protect us against almost everything,
but...

Is that really true?

Or are we destined
to face a future

of ever more potent illnesses

that attack without warning

and can bring
civilization to its knees?

Well...

...That is what
we'll try and find out.

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News reports surface that a new,

highly contagious disease
first discovered in wuhan, china,

is spreading like wildfire.

In a matter of weeks,
the lethal virus...

Known as "coronavirus"
or "covid-19"...

Sweeps the globe.

On March 11,

as the number of
infections and deaths

continue to climb,

the world health
organization declares

that the outbreak has
become a worldwide pandemic.

What separates, clinically,

coronavirus from other
common viruses such as influenza

is that it knows
how to hide itself.

It has what we call a period
where you could be asymptomatic.

That means without symptoms.

That's a chance to pass
that virus to other people,

keeping the disease
going on and spreading.

Most of the time,
when you wait for these symptoms,

you've already missed it.

In the wake
of the harrowing effects

of the coronavirus outbreak,

scientists have been
compelled to reexamine

the nature of
viruses themselves.

Viruses are very mysterious,

because you can't see them.

You need a very
powerful microscope

to be able to see them.

And we didn't even know
that they were around

until relatively recently.

A virus is
essentially a bit of nucleic acid,

either dna or rna,

encapsulated in some
sort of coating. Right?

So it needs to... it needs
to get into another organism

and then essentially hijack that
organism's cellular machinery

to make more copies of itself.

It needs to

actually take over
another living cell.

And whether that's the
living cell of a human,

animal,

plant or even a bacteria,

it needs that.

It's making more
and more viruses

till that cell is not
needed anymore.

A virus relies on either

direct transmission through
sneezing or coughing

or touching, um,
a viral particle

from a person who's expelled it.

Or they rely on a mosquito
or some other organism

to be transmitted
between people.

And so the density of people

will facilitate quicker
spread of viruses,

especially if it's, um,
relatively contagious

and-and easy to-to transfer
from one person to another.

According to experts,

the origins of many viruses

remain shrouded in mystery.

It's so difficult

to determine the origin
of viruses because,

when you want
to study that virus,

you have to separate what is
the natural history of that cell.

So one of the important things

that epidemiologists
are looking at right now is,

what did we learn from the past?

What should we be looking at?

Where should we be looking?

Some of the earliest
records of plagues

are found in ancient india,

china, the middle east,

and they talk about
plagues occurring

before the very
first civilization,

around 3200 bc.

Throughout human history,

there have been accounts
of devastating afflictions

that defied understanding
at the time they happened.

But perhaps a closer
examination of these plagues

will provide some lessons
about infectious diseases

and how they begin.

Emperor justinian sits
atop a powerful throne.

But lurking in the
shadows is a hidden enemy

about to consume his kingdom.

A plague

started by a bacteria

comes out of the east

and infects.

This simple bacteria

ended up killing

almost one half the population
of the entire old empire.

With that type of death toll,

the economic and
social ramifications

were catastrophic.

Everything that
justinian had tried

was now collapsing.

His military collapsed,
his economy collapsed.

And everything
that he tried to do

was of no avail.

Justinian plague
is caused by a bacterium,

yersinia pestis.

It can either enter humans directly,
um, through...

From saliva or-or coughing.

It usually manifests itself

in terms of swelling
of the lymph nodes.

The skin turns black
and basically dies.

And then there's a
progression of fever

and chills and eventual death.

As justinian's empire
was collapsing and breaking

and his military
strength was waning...

Because the science of
medicine in those days

was far more primitive
than we have today.

People cry out, "why?

Why is this happening?"

The plague of justinian,
as it became known,

ultimately killed an
estimated 50 million people.

The vast byzantine
empire was crippled

not by an invading army

but by an enemy they could
not see and did not understand.

At the time,

since the existence
of bacteria and viruses

had not yet been discovered,

many believed that the invisible
force that caused the plague

was god himself.

It was a belief that
was widely accepted,

because people
would read in the bible

about how pestilence
from the past

had been created
by the hand of god.

Whenever humanity is infected

by something greater and
beyond human understanding,

it has always been
psychologically understood

to be an expression
of the wrath of god.

We have in the book of exodus

the famous ten plagues of egypt.

Moses had come back after
seeing god on the mountain

to free the hebrews
from slavery.

He went before the pharaoh
and asked to let his people go.

Of course, the pharaoh said no.

Therefore, the hebrew god sent a
number of plagues through egypt.

The bible stories are clear.

The order of the plagues are
well-documented in the bible.

We know, of course,

that there was the turning
of the nile into blood.

There were the frogs, the lice,

the pestilence and, of course,

the great plagues of the
three days of darkness

and, of course,
the death of the firstborn.

The biblical writer
who is writing what happens

and is inspired by god

does say that the plague stopped

after the hebrews
were finally free.

So, perhaps there was some
divine intervention from god.

But we'll never know,

because miracles are
very difficult to prove.

Was there a
higher power involved

that both started and
ended the plagues of egypt

and the plague of justinian?

Perhaps more clues as to
what causes devastating plagues

can be found by examining
the disease responsible

for claiming more
lives than any other.

Officials from the california
odepartment of public health

alert residents that a
woman has tested positive

for a dangerous and
quite unexpected disease.

The bubonic plague,

otherwise known
as the black death.

Does the
bubonic plague still exist?

The answer is... Yes.

And it's amazing

how, many centuries later,

you could say this
with a calm voice.

What is the difference?

The answer is antibiotics.

We know that if you
have symptoms early

that antibiotics
can save your life.

While it's not
as prevalent anymore,

the plague is certainly
still in circulation.

In the united states,
right, in more rural areas,

where people come into
contact with-with rodents

that might be infected with it,

it's still known to, like,
crop up here and there.

The worst case of the
bubonic plague that there was

was known as the black death,

in the middle of the 1300s.

And that wiped out

60% of all of
europe's population.

12 trade ships arrive

from the black sea

and drift into the port of
messina to unload freight.

As dockworkers

approach the vessels,

they discover a
disturbing scene.

The port master goes on board

to see the crew, and,
to their surprise,

it was almost like there
were zombies on the ship.

Gangrene fingers.

Big boils.

And if I saw

a crew that had black fingers

and boils, let's be honest:

It sounds like a
zombie apocalypse.

The black death seemed
to have been introduced

via the silk road,

which is a major trading route

in the early medieval
period from central asia

where the bubonic
plague regularly pops up.

Europe seems to have
been largely unprepared

for this devastating event.

This is in the 1300s.

It went for quite a few years,

and whole villages and
areas were wiped out.

And like many plagues,
uh, people wondered why.

These cities
would get the plague,

and no one knew why.

And then we always
have the advantage

of looking back on
history and tracing.

Historians could look back and say,
"wait a minute.

"all the cities with ports

"that do a lot of
trading were infected.

And what were going
to all these ports? Ships."

The black death

was spread by fleas
that lived on rats.

And wherever these rats went,
the fleas went,

and they bit people.
That's what made them ill.

The flea
would actually vomit the bacteria

onto the person's
skin while biting them.

The disease spreads to
the body's lymph nodes

and causes buboes,

which are infected sores

which get to be about
the size of an egg.

And they eventually
burst and expel bloody pus.

The body goes through

such horrific and
gruesome transformations

that from the time you contract
the bubonic plague until death

can sometimes only
be a matter of days.

During the middle ages,
many believed

that demons were
responsible for the black death.

- - and people who were deemed

to be wicked or unworthy

were punished

in hopes of driving
the demons away.

Many people believed

that the source of this plague

was caused by evil spirits,

witchcraft and the like.

The powers of the occult.

And this led many people

to seek out any
type of expressions

of the occult,
witchcraft and the like...

...And to root it out

in the attempt to placate god.

Some were so
convinced that the black death

was a scourge
brought by evil spirits,

they were willing to
scourge themselves.

One common occurrence
during the time of the black death

was to see, uh, people that
were called flagellants, which...

They were under the belief
that they were being punished

by god for their sins,
so they would publicly atone,

and they would March
through the town square,

flogging themselves
in the name of god.

This flagellation
movement really exploded.

Whole towns
flagellating themselves.

Those that didn't were
accused of being with the devil.

Something else that
came from the black death was

the practice of
selling holy relics.

When the black death
was decimating europe,

the church were saying,

"come to us,

and we can cure you."

the bones of a saint

or something that had
once belonged to a saint

kept in these churches.
They were called relics.

And people believed
that if they went there

or close to such relics,

prayed, that god may intervene

and protect them
from the plague.

Now, they weren't curing anyone,

but people were still
flocking to the churches

just on the hope that
they could be cured.

So,
when we talk about the many lives

that were lost during
the black death,

I think about a horror movie.

Historians
estimate that the black death

wiped out anywhere from
50 to 200 million people,

at least a third of
europe's population.

So it's little wonder

that most people thought
that something so destructive

must have been some
kind of punishment from god.

But today,
we have a much different understanding

of this disease.

We call it the black death,

but it's-it's a bacteria
called yersinia pestis.

But it's not as
dangerous as it was then.

Now we have antibiotics.

We can detect it.

You know, you can treat it.

In any case,

yersinia pestis is
still around today,

which begs the question,

is it possible

to actually kill
off a fatal disease

once and for all?

Perhaps the answer can be found

by examining a deadly plague

that, believe it or not,

has been infecting humankind

for more than 10,000 years.

The valley of mexico.

Spanish conquistadors
led by hern�n cort�s

arrive at tenochtitl�n,
the capital of the aztec empire,

bearing dreams of conquest

and an insatiable
desire for gold.

But they also brought with them a lethal,
infectious disease.

Smallpox is introduced

into the americas
very dramatically

at a specific point in time

and alongside the
european invasion.

This is a tremendous
sort of clash of civilizations,

the likes of which the
world had never seen before

and will never see again.

The single most deciding factor

as to why native american
civilizations fell so rapidly

was the introduction
of smallpox.

So, smallpox is a virus.

It causes these sort
of irregularly spaced,

pustule-y skin lesions

and had a devastating effect

on-on native americans,
um, in the new world.

In europe,
most people had experienced smallpox.

They had the scars,

or they had it as children.

But there was no
immunity in the new world.

There was no
immunity among kids.

There was no
immunity among adults.

And so,
when this new disease came,

everybody was vulnerable.

And so it spread like wildfire.

Although the exact
numbers will never be known,

many experts estimate

that a staggering 95% of
the indigenous population

would eventually
die from smallpox.

But what's even more chilling

is the fact that
smallpox ran rampant

for thousands of years.

I am astounded

by how far back smallpox goes.

For most of human
recorded history,

we believe it's the same strain

that was infecting one
person after another,

this human chain of infection.

The egyptian pharaoh ramses
v had scarring on his face

that's consistent with smallpox.

It is estimated
that smallpox has killed

between 300 and
500 million people

in its more than
10,000-year existence.

How did we finally beat it?

Well, it just so happens
that the cure for smallpox

was discovered in a small
english village in the 1790s.

In the late 1700s,
doctors were noticing

that milkmaids did not seem
to be affected by smallpox,

and their complexions
remained unscarred.

And people were starting
to make that connection

that there might be
immunity from catching

a different kind of pox virus,
cow pox.

So milkmaids were
exposed to the cow pox virus,

probably got infected,

and were then
immune to smallpox.

Edward jenner was
an english physician,

and decided to
test this observation,

and took a piece of
an ulcer from a cow

that was infected by cow pox,

and gave it to an
eight-year-old boy.

And then, a little bit later,

gave this little boy
a dose of smallpox.

Fortunately, the eight-year-old
boy did not develop smallpox

and was actually protected.

Because it wasn't, like,
a direct viral intake,

you would get, like,
a slightly lesser version of the disease.

But because you had
been exposed to it,

you would, of course,
then have immunity.

So it was probably
the first instance

of a crude version
of vaccination.

As it turns out,
edward jenner's revolutionary experiment

is remembered today
for its inspiration,

its sheer audacity

and because it
provided a new defense

against infectious disease,

which we now refer
to as "the vaccine."

the word "vaccine" comes
from the virus name "vaccinia,"

which was the virus that
was the cow pox-derived virus

that left people
immune to smallpox.

Vaccines prevent disease,

and some vaccines
can last for decades,

and some vaccines need
to be given every year.

For smallpox, people had to
get vaccinated every ten years.

Vaccines are
humanity's single greatest weapon

against plagues.

Rooted in science
and not superstition,

they provide a powerful
way to fight outbreaks.

The last naturally
occurring case of smallpox

was identified in 1979,
and in 1980,

the world health
organization declared

that smallpox was eradicated.

So no longer spreading
from person to person.

Eradicating smallpox was
the biggest public health victory

in the history of
the human race.

The eradication of
smallpox is the most famous use

of a highly-effective vaccine,

but there are some diseases
that are harder to cure.

There are viruses

for which we have
no vaccines at all,

because they mutate too rapidly.

And so, because viruses mutate,

there's a certain limitation to
what you can do with vaccines.

The minute
you get too confident,

and you think that we
defeated mother nature,

somehow,
it always finds a way to come back.

Vaccines are one of mankind's

greatest scientific triumphs.

But not all medical recoveries

can be easily
explained by science.

Sometimes, the body's reaction

to an infection is so
bizarre and so inexplicable

that it can only
be described as...

Miraculous.

July 4, 1863.

Gettysburg, pennsylvania.

On the morning after
the bloodiest battle

of the civil war,

thousands of dead
soldiers lay strewn

across the
blood-soaked farmland.

But while the brutality of the
civil war is well-documented,

approximately
two-thirds of the more

than 600,000 deaths in the war

weren't caused by injuries
sustained on the battlefield,

but rather... By disease.

The civil war represents

the last major conflict that,
um, that humans experienced

um, before the,
sort of, the inception

or the origins of germ theory.

You can imagine the conditions

that soldiers live in,
crowded together,

substandard sanitation.

In some cases,

open wounds that aren't
being treated correctly.

It's really gross.

Everything smells terrible.

Uh,
these doctors aren't washing their aprons.

They can't explain where they're
getting these diseases from,

how they may be spreading it.

As uncontrollable
infections ravaged

both union and
confederate encampments,

soldiers and their
doctors debated the cause

of their afflictions.

Many came to believe that
the air itself was poisoned.

When we talk about

some of the deadliest
viruses that we know,

some of them get transmitted
by respiratory droplets, the air.

When you cough,
when you sneeze, just by talking.

So maybe they weren't too
off by saying the air is bad.

In the mid-nineteenth century,

little was known
about disease control

or preventing the
spread of germs.

But as the scope
of the war widened

and the ferocity of
infectious outbreaks resulted

in even more
horrific causalities,

doctors were forced to expand
their knowledge of diseases

and how to contain them.

They realize that

maybe a barn isn't the
best place to be doing

amputations and open surgeries.

So, as the war goes on,

there's beginning to
be an understanding

of what medicine should be.

Things like triage,

things like an ambulance system,
hospitals...

These are all established
during the civil war

in the united states
for the first time.

In many ways,
the civil war marked the beginning

of medical science as we know it

and the end of mankind's

superstitious attitude
towards disease.

But there is one
event on the battlefield

that medical historians still
struggle to explain to this day,

because it simply
defies understanding.

April 7, 1862,
hardin county, tennessee.

Union and confederate
forces square off

in one of the
bloodiest confrontations

of the civil war...
The battle of shiloh.

After two days of
vicious fighting...

...More than 20,000
men lie dead or dying.

So,
ulysses s. Grant is the commander

of the union
army at this battle.

He went out,
and looked over the battlefield,

and he could see that there were
so many soldiers who had been

wounded and killed that he
could have walked across one side

of the battlefield to the other

without ever
touching the ground,

walking from body
to body to body.

As night
falls over the battlefield,

many injured
soldiers lie helpless,

hoping to be rescued before
their wounds become infected.

What happens next is one
of the enduring mysteries

of the civil war.

Soldiers are
out between the lines,

wounded during the
course of the battle.

It's cold at night. They're
out there shivering.

And they happen to look down
at their shattered arm or leg,

and they notice this soft,
faint, bluish-greenish glow

seeming to come off their
wounds in the darkness.

There was a connection that was
being made amongst the soldiers

that those who experienced
this glowing wound effect

seemed to have better outcomes

when they went back to the field hospital,
and it seemed

as though their wounds may
not have been as infected.

They termed
this bluish-green glow

angel's glow. Why?

Because, to them,
it looked like a halo.

Mystical light surrounding them.

So,
it was a way of them thinking that god

or the angels were protecting
these particular soldiers.

Was the so-called angel's glow

a type of divine intervention

that somehow protected certain
soldiers from deadly infections?

Perhaps. But recently,
a new theory has surfaced...

One that suggests
this phenomenon

may have had a more
conventional explanation.

It wasn't until many years,
like 150 years later,

that a 17-year-old high
school student visited shiloh,

and he decided for
his science project

to research
bacterium that glows.

And they were able to find
out that there was a bacteria

that would emit some
sort of parasitic worm.

It would get into the veins,
and then it would glow.

Could the angel's glow

really have been a
sign of a type of bacteria,

rather than guardian angels?

And if so, could this bacteria
have actually been responsible

for saving the lives of
the wounded soldiers?

Presumably,
what happened with those soldiers

with the angel's glow

is that those bacteria were
actually infecting their wounds.

And because those bacteria
exude a lot of antibacterial

and antimicrobial compounds,
they actually reduce the level

of infection in the soldiers

that they, that they,
uh, colonized.

The bacteria theory

is the best scientific
explanation we have

for what caused
the angel's glow.

If this incredible
theory is true,

then it seems that
some forms of bacteria

can actually help us in
the fight against disease.

But the soldiers
whose lives were saved

at the battle of shiloh
believed that what healed them

could only have been
sent from heaven.

We can't know what
those soldiers experienced

out there on the battlefield
between the lines.

They're in the dark,
they're suffering from shock.

Who's to say that they
didn't experience that

or that they did
experience that?

Guardian angels,
reaching down to comfort

and even cure dying soldiers
during the american civil war?

To some it sounds
like pure fantasy.

But to others, especially those

who've had their own
close calls with death,

there's no doubt that such
a notion is entirely plausible.

When dealing
with deadly diseases,

it's hard to be certain
of pretty much anything.

Not only do we
often know very little

about how to cure an illness,

we know even less about
where an illness comes from.

For instance, what if I told you

that what we commonly
refer to as the spanish flu

didn't come from Spain at all,
but from a remote army base...

...In kansas?

At the height of world war I,

more than 50 years after the
end of the american civil war,

soldiers from more than
30 nations are engaged

in trench warfare
all over europe...

...And a new,
unexpected enemy emerges...

...The spanish flu.

Europe is awash

in the influenza virus.

They had a massive
outbreak of influenza,

and these soldiers
serving at the front lines

are directly impacted on
both sides of the conflict.

- -the symptoms
were pretty horrific,

and so these soldiers were
not capable of performing

their duties, and many of
them actually die of the disease.

We're used to the flu,
but the 1918 flu

had more severe symptoms
and lingering effects.

When the flu first
started spreading,

their skin turned blue.

They just had no
oxygen in their blood.

It was not uncommon for
people to lose all their hair.

It was not uncommon to
have neurological side effects.

The 1918 influenza strain

caused an incredibly high fever,
it caused coughing.

In many cases,
patients' lungs would fill with fluid

as this virus is
taking over their body.

That would cause an
immune system overreaction

and they would
essentially drown.

Medics on the front lines,

prepared for the ravages of war,

look on in horror as young,
healthy soldiers

begin to die within days,

or even hours of
showing symptoms.

The spanish flu was caused by,
um, an h1n1 influenza virus.

And the particular
strain of the h1n1 virus

was a little unusual
amongst influenza viruses

in that it was much more contagious,
it was much easier

to expel and spread
between people.

In 1918, we still really were

sort of incapable of
stopping its spread.

This was right at the
end of world war I,

and so soldiers were, of course,
kept in close quarters

and barracks together.

And then, also,
people were sort of moving around the world

more than they probably
normally would have been

sort of traveling.

Um,
and so those were some of the factors

that caused it to
spread really rapidly.

Since finding a
cure for a mysterious virus

in the midst of a
world war is a difficult,

if not impossible undertaking,

both the central powers
and the allied powers

decided the best
course of action

was to downplay the
threat posed by the disease.

In fact,
the 1918 flu is called the spanish flu

not because it came from Spain,
but because,

initially,
Spain was the only country willing

to acknowledge its existence.

The reason we
think of it as the spanish flu

is because Spain had
a free press at that time,

and the rest of
the world did not.

Spain was not
involved in world war I,

and their king ended
up getting the 1918 flu.

So it was a matter
of national interest,

and most americans
learned of the flu

from the spanish papers.

The so-called spanish
flu is estimated to have infected

one third of the world's
population at the time,

roughly 500 million people.

But while the press
created a lasting nickname

for the 1918 flu,

some researchers have
suggested that it actually originated

in the heartland
of the united states.

March 4, 1918.

Fort riley, kansas.

Before the so-called spanish flu
outbreak was reported in europe,

a private at this remote
army base in the united states

starts to feel ill.

In March of 1918,
an army private named albert gitchell...

He's a cook with the army...

He reports symptoms,
so he goes to the hospital.

Uh, he's sick,
he's-he's not feeling well.

He's got a bit of a cough,
bit of a fever.

In the end,
he ultimately goes in to work,

feeding all of these
soldiers in this army camp.

In the weeks that follow,
the members of this camp

come down with a
pretty nasty flu strain.

And there are no other outbreaks
similar to this at this point,

which suggests that
this outbreak is starting

at that camp,
and potentially with that soldier.

There were 1,127
cases just at fort riley itself,

and 46 people died.

So all these soldiers
at fort riley are thinking

they just had a bad cold,
or maybe even a mild flu.

They were eventually
all put on trains,

which spread all
over the country

going to various ports.

And then they were
all shipped off to europe

to fight in the war.

Many scientist now
believe that army private albert gitchell

was the first man to
contract the 1918 flu.

Gitchell spread it to
his fellow servicemen

when he served them food.

And soldiers then
were sent overseas

to fight in the war,
and they unwittingly

spread the disease
around the globe.

But of course that
explanation is only a theory.

The situation fits
the epidemiology,

the number of people
who got sick afterwards.

But whether we will
ever know for sure

who patient zero was,

or whether it absolutely
came from kansas,

it's hard to be absolutely sure.

It's really hard to learn
where any virus starts,

where any pandemic starts,
because you're not recording

everywhere all the time,

and having the
scientific tools in place

to be able to detect it.

The great mystery
of any of these pandemics

or public health crises
is where did it start?

And, ultimately,
why did it start?

And what were the circumstances
that allowed that to happen?

It's the story of how we
interact with one another,

and how we spread
diseases amongst each other.

If you track that
and you find that out,

we could prevent it
happening again in the future.

The spanish flu
outbreak lasted for three long years

and killed an estimated
50 million people

before society finally developed
enough collective immunity

for the virus to die out.

History shows us that no matter
how lethal a disease may be,

humankind has always
found a way to endure it,

whether by employing
medical breakthroughs

or sheer patience.

But what kind of illnesses will
we have to face in the future?

Could they be different than

what we've
experienced in the past?

And might they come to our
planet from another world?

British
astronomer sir fred hoyle

publishes a book titled
astronomical origins of life:

Steps towards panspermia.

In it,
hoyle investigates the controversial theory

of panspermia,
which suggests that

life on earth did
not originate here

but rather in space,

and that asteroids
carried the microbial

building blocks of
dna to our planet.

You cannot
dismiss the possibility

that maybe life came
from outer space.

That we were seeded.
Seeded by asteroids or comets

that then put their
organic materials

onto the planet earth.

And so there's a new theory
in astronomy that says that

the solar system is
like a ping-pong game

with meteorites carrying
microbial lifeforms,

going back and forth between venus,
mars,

the earth and the moon.

This has given momentum
to the panspermia theory.

Some scientists
have suggested that if the theory

of panspermia is true,

then it's possible that
extraterrestrial viruses

could also travel here,
bringing with them diseases

that would be much different

from the ones
that exist on earth.

When you
think about the core elements

of viral plagues... those
are the four genetic codes,

dna or rna within
a protein shell...

That's something that's
easier to imagine being stable

deep inside an asteroid,
and safe.

And so any sort
of virus or plague,

you can imagine
them starting from

one of these asteroid events.

A space plague is a
leap into the unknown.

We have no way of
knowing what kinds of dna,

or maybe a modified dna
version exists in outer space.

We have never seen other
kinds of viruses from outer space

that can infect earthlings.

So right now we simply
don't know the answer.

I think if a plague
came from outer space,

just like the way some
of the plagues we know

jump from animals to humans,
suddenly,

any sudden change in the viruses

or bacteria that are
attacking you as a human,

your immune system will not
have a defense to, most likely.

These dramatic events,
whether it's from space

or a sudden jumping
from animals to humans,

are the reason these
plagues can be so devastating.

A plague from outer space?

While that may seem
like a far-fetched notion,

it's a possibility that
science must be prepared for.

There are always
these viruses out there,

these things that
we can't explain.

It's important for us to
always be vigilant, to be aware

and to have our
public health authorities

always on the lookout.

So we can never
put our guard down.

Hopefully, the faster we are

and the better we
are at bioengineering,

the faster we can make
vaccines and countermeasures.

It's key to have them so
that we can make ways

to protect ourselves.

Preparing for any
disease is complex,

and it requires a lot of, um,
mobilization of government,

public health,
and the science to be able to figure out

what happened,
and to prevent it from happening again.

To be able to halt transmission
of this disease, whatever it is.

It becomes a
detective story as well.

You need to figure
out where it came from

and how to
attribute the disease.

It's a mystery that
our lives depend on,

and we need people
to be working on that

and thinking about that.

Perhaps what makes
deadly diseases so frightening

is that we never know when
they're going to strike next.

And that uncertainty
is also what forces us

to ask ourselves
are we really safe?

Well,
the truth is that only time will tell.

Which means that,
at least for now,

these questions
will remain unexplained.