The documentary by Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei is about the history of the Covid epidemic from the perspective of scientists who are being blamed for the pandemic by conspiracy theorists. Xhengli Shi is the head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. She is accused of having done “Gain-of-Function” research in order to make the Coronavirus especially dangerous and turning it into a bioweapon. Peter Daszak is the head of the NGO “Eco Health Alliance,” that works together with the Wuhan lab as part of an international cooperation. Alex Jones, the head of the right-wing extremist “Infowars,” calls for Laszak to be publicly executed. Lifan Wang from Singapore, with whom Laszak and Shi founded a working group in 2003 to determine the origin of the first SARS virus, was not in the spotlight as much. In 2005, the group suspected bats as vectors in a “spillover event,” and in 2012 they were able to prove that the virus originated in a bat cave in Yunnan. The film and the scientists represent the thesis that Covid was transferred to humans by wild animals, probably from the seafood market in Wuhan. There is evidence for this, however the thesis is unpopular in China because the sale of living animals is banned, and what isn’t allowed isn’t possible. In the US, the theory that sinister figures in league with communists unleashed murderous viruses on humanity is more popular. Christian Frei’s film searches for psychological explanations for the manic reactions, but also illustrates ways in which anti-science narratives found their way in the US media. The Eco Health Alliance was dissolved in April 2025; no one is supposed to research the connection between environmental destruction and pandemics anymore.

Tom Dorow

Translation: Elinor Lewy