Netflix’s Explained, produced by Vox Media, is a popular series because it succinctly describes several current events, interesting topics and more.

And though the episode, “The Next Pandemic,” was released in November 2019, it very eerily shows exactly how the coronavirus pandemic that’s taking place now was primed to happen. Coronavirus is almost an essential replication of prior outbreaks.

The episode details how it is easy for pandemics to happen, specifically using the SARS (Severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak of 2003. SARS originated in a live, wet animal market in China, which has many similarities to the market in Wuhan that coronavirus is believed to have emerged from. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is actually a result of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 or SARS-CoV-2.

As said in the Explained narration: “Unlike markets in much of the West, where animals are already dead when they arrive, this wet market sells meat that’s very fresh. It’s killed on sight. That’s what makes it a disease X factory. Many different animal species are stacked on top of each other, their blood and meat mixed, before being passed from human to human. All the while, their viruses are mixing and mutating, increasing the odds that one finds its way to humans.”

Scientists also believe that coronavirus came from bats and snakes, both of which were sold live at the market in Wuhan. During the SARS outbreak, humans were infected through bats and civet cats. As it spread, human-to-human contact emerged, causing the pandemic.

Bill Gates, featured in the episode, predicted how the next pandemic would happen–just a few months before coronavirus became a worldwide issue. “If a disease comes along that we haven’t seen before, typically it would take four or five years to come up with a vaccine against that disease. And new technologies might shorten those times. When a pandemic comes along of any size, we always look back and wish we invested,” he said.

While you’re checking out the pandemic episode of Explained, it’ll be easy to get looped into all of the rest of the episodes, which include: “The Racial Wealth Gap,” “Cults,” “Diamonds,” “The Female Orgasm” and much more. J.K. Simmons narrates the pandemic episode, but other episodes of the show are narrated by Samira Wiley, LeVar Burton, Yara Shahidi and LaKeith Stanfield.

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Photo: Netflix

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