How Researchers Tried to Combat SARS (full documentary) | FRONTLINE/World

The story of how the SARS outbreak unfolded in the early 2000s — and how researchers sought to combat it. (Aired June 2003)

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The COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t the first time the world experienced an outbreak of a never-before-seen type of coronavirus. In the FRONTLINE/World short documentary “Hong Kong: Chasing the Virus,” which aired in June 2003, reporter and producer Renata Simone went inside an earlier outbreak of a coronavirus that also originated in mainland China: SARS. It spread to the rest of the world after a man from China’s Guangdong province attended a wedding in Hong Kong and unknowingly infected nine other guests at the hotel where he was staying.

As the outbreak unfolded, Simone traveled to Hong Kong. Usually a bustling hub of commerce, the port city had been brought to a virtual standstill. Adding to the fear gripping Hong Kong: There was no cure or proven treatment for SARS.

As the sense of urgency mounted, Simone filmed with an international group of researchers who were teaming up at the University of Hong Kong to try to combat SARS, following their efforts to find a cure. The team included Dr. David Ho, a world-renowned AIDS researcher based at Columbia University in New York who hoped his expertise would be transferable.

By the time the SARS epidemic ultimately wound down that same year, contained through public health measures like testing, quarantine and isolation, close to 800 people had died.

“Hong Kong: Chasing the Virus” was reported by Renata Simone, and produced by Simone and

Raney Aronson-Rath. The founder and executive producer of FRONTLINE was David Fanning.

We are making episodes from FRONTLINE/World’s archive newly available here on YouTube and on pbs.org as part of an effort to make our past reporting widely accessible.

Originally developed by FRONTLINE producers in conjunction with public television stations KQED San Francisco and WGBH Boston, FRONTLINE/World launched in 2002 as a national public TV series that turned its lens on the global community, covering countries and cultures rarely seen on American television. The series completed its final broadcast season in 2010.

Explore more about FRONTLINE/World and this film on the legacy website for the series:

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FRONTLINE/World was a production of GBH in Boston. The executive producer was David Fanning.

FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and airs nationwide on PBS. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.

Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with major support from Ford Foundation, and Fialkow Family Foundation. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Heising-Simons Foundation, and the FRONTLINE Trust, with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and Corey David Sauer, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

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