—FRONTLINE Investigates How the Coronavirus Outbreak Began in the U.S. and the Halting Federal Response—
How did the United States become the country with the worst known coronavirus outbreak in the world?
In a special report based on the ground in the Seattle, Washington area, where the first U.S. case of the novel coronavirus was originally identified, FRONTLINE tells the inside story of how COVID-19 took a toll first in Washington State — and then the rest of the country, amid a halting federal response, early warnings, and missed opportunities.
Drawing on gripping accounts from public health officials and doctors who first treated America’s patient one and began dealing with the emerging outbreak, the documentary “Coronavirus Pandemic” reveals a startling tale of two Washingtons — tracing the very different preparations and responses of the federal government and Washington State.
“They’ve put science at the center of their policy, and they’ve let the data drive the decisions,” veteran science journalist and FRONTLINE correspondent Miles O’Brien says of Washington State’s approach.
O’Brien and his team arrived in Seattle before the rest of the country was in the grip of the virus, and in the documentary, they unpack in vivid, near-real-time detail how the first U.S. COVID-19 case was identified and treated.
“We had a game plan in place already,” Dr. George Diaz, who treated patient one, tells FRONTLINE. Diaz had been paying attention to warnings about a strange new respiratory disease out of Wuhan, China, where the patient had recently traveled. And he and his colleagues at Providence Regional Medical Center had even run an elaborate pandemic training simulation less than three weeks earlier.
But as the film explores, in those critical first weeks after the arrival of the virus in the U.S., administration officials — and President Trump himself — continued to insist that the risk was small.
That left many in the state concerned and frustrated, especially Governor Jay Inslee, one of multiple governors at odds with the president across the country as the outbreak has unfolded.
“We always knew that we would have to lead the charge, given the president's reluctance to really exercise leadership on this,” he tells FRONTLINE, adding, “And we sort of knew that he had an intent of downplaying what was an emerging problem. That, you know, could only be explained by someone who had their eye on the Dow Jones rather than an eye on the epidemiological curve.”
“It’s mind-boggling to me,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) tells FRONTLINE. “I mean, obviously, an infectious disease like this could spread rapidly, and no one in Washington, D.C., was treating it that way. I felt like at the time, I lived in two different worlds.”
As it traces how the outbreak spread in Washington State and the U.S., “Coronavirus Pandemic” pinpoints key moments of divergent decision-making at the state and national level, and missed opportunities to potentially save lives – such as the early decision by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not to use a test recommended by the World Health Organization, and then the failure of the CDC’s own test.
“You got to have the supply of testing, absolutely do. We need to be able to detect where the virus is and then try and snuff it out, right? Prevent its transmission, that’s the name of the game,” says virologist Alex Greninger of the University of Washington, who ran into bureaucratic brick walls trying to get his own test approved.
The film also goes inside the ongoing struggle for critical medical and protective equipment, from ventilators to masks and face shields – a shortage that many blame on the Trump administration.
“We knew in January what we would need, we knew,” former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem tells FRONTLINE. “We would need gloves and masks and respirators, and ventilators. Two-and-a-half months later, we’re dependent on sewing circles to supply our frontline heroes with what they need.”
Washington State officials, like others in the country, say this was an avoidable crisis.
“Because we’ve lacked the federal leadership we needed, it’s been mayor versus mayor, city versus city, state versus state,” Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan tells FRONTLINE. “Trying to get the access to the limited resources to protect our communities … all of that has become this ‘Hunger Games’ process where everyone’s trying to figure out a way to outbid each other.”
As the coronavirus outbreak continues to unfold and tensions between the president and state governments continue, the documentary is a sobering and illuminating look at how the crisis started, the U.S. response and the challenges that lie ahead.
For more reporting from FRONTLINE on COVID-19, listen to "Covering Coronavirus," a special podcast series from the FRONTLINE Dispatch.
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Credits
A FRONTLINE production with Mobias Media, Inc. The writer, producer, director and correspondent is Miles O’Brien. The producers are Caleb Hellerman and Kate McMahon. The co-producers are Fedor Kossakovski, Megan Robertson and Will Toubman. The senior producer is Frank Koughan. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
