When the first case of coronavirus made the news last year, the world had no idea that the as-yet mysterious respiratory disease would quickly spread into a global pandemic. COVID-19 has killed more than a million people worldwide, with a fifth of those fatalities occurring within the United States alone. And now, a new documentary claims that the devastating impact of the pandemic on this country is largely due to the negligence of President Donald Trump.
Totally Under Control is a new investigative documentary that takes a hard look at the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, starting from when scientists initially learned of the virus in December 2019. The documentary, which was largely filmed in secret, gathers medical professionals, public health officials, and even government employees within the Trump administration to discuss exactly where things went wrong.
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"We, the scientists knew what to do for the pandemic response," one interviewee says in the trailer. "The plan was in front of us, but leadership wouldn't do it."
"The scientist sounded the alarm every day," adds another. "But the U.S. government did nothing."
The fact that the trailer for this scathing exposé dropped today is beyond ironic, considering the news that President Trump just tested positive for the coronavirus. For the past ten months, the president's response to the pandemic has been woefully inadequate; his diagnosis comes after constant downplaying of the infectious disease, spreading misinformation about treatment, and cutting off the CDC's access to coronavirus data.
Through the testimony of insiders, Totally Under Control highlights his administration's ineffective measures towards the coronavirus. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney teamed up with directors Ophelia Harutyunyan and Suzanne Hillinger to create the stunning project, which is being distributed by Neon.
"As the presidential election nears, Americans are increasingly enraged by a lack of clear leadership, endemic political corruption and left to wonder how did the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world manage to fail so thoroughly in its response to a global pandemic?" the documentary's official synopsis reads. "With damning testimony from public health officials and hard investigative reporting, Gibney exposes a system-wide collapse caused by a profound dereliction of presidential leadership.”
Totally Under Control will be available on-demand on October 13, a week before it has a wider release on Hulu starting October 20.
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