54 Days

A year ago, Beijing stunned the world when it locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. For weeks, Chinese officials had maintained that the outbreak was under control – just a few dozen cases linked to a live animal market. 54 Days tells the story of the events that led to the lockdown and the gulf between what Chinese officials and scientists knew and what they told the world.

When Covid-19 first arrived on American soil, US federal health authorities were seemingly unaware of how transmissible the virus truly was. This chilling account chronicles 54 days in which the United States made crucial decisions that would severely impact the spread of the virus. Through moving and intimate interviews with public health officials and scientists who had already concluded that the virus had global pandemic potential, this episode recounts their struggles as they are confronted with a failing diagnostic test and a president who appears to repeatedly undermine the true threat of the virus.