A New Documentary Will Feature CDC Top Official Warning the Public About COVID-19
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held briefings on the COVID-19 pandemic almost every day during the first two months of the pandemic.
It was then led by Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the CDC.
Messonnier also helped the United State combat the 2001 anthrax scare. Messonier explained the COVID-19 cases count, as well as the measures CDC was implementing to minimize the spread.
The CDC top official also explained how concerned Americans should be, while sharing some updates on Twitter.
However, on Feb. 25, stopped delivering regular briefings.
"It's not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness," Messonnier earlier told the American public, as reported by Business Insider.
Two weeks after this statement, Messonier stopped doing regular announcements.
With this, a new documentary called "Totally Under Control" was released.
The new documentary reveals shocking details about why Messonnier and her regular CDC briefings disappeared after the warning.
The documentary film was produced by Jigsaw Production over the past five months in secrecy.
The said documentary will stream on Hulu on Tuesday. Totally Under Control was directed by Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan, and Suzanne Hillinger.
Experts in the film said that Messonier was quietly shunted from the public eye after she went against the White House's preferred messaging without clearing it with the president.
Experts including CDC director Robert Redfield, Messonnier, Anthony Fauci, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar was aware that the COVID-19 pandemic was spreading silently in the country.
According to a Business Insider report, Michael Shear, a New York Times White House correspondent, says in the film that they decided to tell Trump they needed to be aggressive about warning the public where they were headed.
Immunologist Rick Bright, who was interviewed in the film, said that the challenge has always been who is in charge.
The documentary maker, Gibey, said that we could have contained this, adding that so much damage and deaths could have been prevented, as reported by Refinery29.
However, scientists and medical experts struggled to convince leaders to immediately start on testing and vaccines.
Messonnier's statements were the first to prepare the Americans for what the scientists knew was coming, according to Bright.
This sent the stockmarket downward. The Dow Jones lost 1,000 points and then another 900 on consecutive days.
The investors were scareed and the stock market was plummeting. Reports said the president was already furious.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump threatened to fire Messonnier, according to a Business Insider report.
Bright said that it did not surprise him, adding that Messonnier would be removed from the moment she said that.
Totally Under Control
Totally Under Control shows how the pandemic has started, much earlier than most people could even conceived.
Scott Becker, the CEO of the Association of Public Health Lab told Refinery29 reporters that there was just more frustration, concern, and sadness as they were not able to do their jobs.
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