Abbott, CNN, and Discovery partnered to take people to the frontlines around the world to understand how scientists and healthcare professionals are working together to stop the next pandemic from happening.

But to do this would be no easy feat – Abbott’s coalition teams work in remote, inaccessible locales and cover an almost incomprehensible range of detection and intervention technologies, methodologies, and organizations across a dozen languages on five continents.

Filmmakers traveled through the wilds of Colombia, rural townships of South Africa, the streets of New Delhi, and cutting-edge labs in the United States to tell the stories of the incredible breadth and scope of the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has awakened to systemic vulnerabilities that had once seemed so abstract as academic thought experiments. But to best confront these problem areas, we must achieve consensus on the nature, scope, and trajectory of the problem. The Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition set out to build a streamlined pathway to accomplish this but needed to raise awareness of their work on a global scale.

To succeed, this campaign would need to focus on the macro story of global pandemic prevention and the micro levels of individual teams, locales, and viral threats around the world. By interweaving the separate accounts of frontline workers in Colombia, South Africa, India, and the United States, audiences everywhere can better understand and appreciate the many aspects of Abbott’s unprecedented endeavor.

Covid-19 put the world on watch – but while interest in virology and pandemic prevention is at a fever pitch, a massive anti-scientific backlash has eroded trust in scientists and public authorities. As a result, the public fears the possibility of the next pandemic but is also deeply skeptical about the science and the heroes who are critical to preventing it.

Against these headwinds, Abbott devised a global campaign that zoomed in on local labs and scientists around the world, working on behalf of their communities. This documentary series takes us to the frontlines with these local scientists doing the quietly heroic work that protects us all, even against the backdrop of contentious societal backlash.

This campaign dispatched a team of journalists and filmmakers to the frontlines around the world to create a kaleidoscopic portrait of the real people behind a worldwide mission. Each episode introduces us to a new expert, place, and personal story of the struggle to gain the upper hand against viral pathogens, so the series as a whole can interweave their disparate accounts to tell a timely, life-affirming story of what unites us in our common quest for survival.

Crafted through many hours of interviews with top, award-winning scientists around the world, including the scientist who discovered the Beta and Omicron variants, this globe-trotting series comprises four 5-10 minute documentary films presented in a content hub alongside articles, interactives, and video cutdowns. The whole campaign is promoted across social, digital, and linear channels to raise awareness of Abbott’s life-saving work in pandemic prevention.

Since forming, the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition has discovered an Omicron variant in South Africa, developed an Oropouche PCR test and antibody tests for research use in Colombia, identified a high-risk site for the spread of HIV and Hepatitis in New Delhi, and created a world-class international genomics library and early alert system.

And it’s just the beginning – the campaign earned over 216,697,000 video views across Discovery, CNN, Science Channel, and HLN, with 28,906,511 video completions across all platforms.

Even against the backdrop of unprecedented division and a science-skeptical public, the Virus Hunt has earned 96% positive reactions on Facebook – a signal that the films’ message is transcending the culture war to resonate deeply with anyone who sees them. This campaign promises to create new opportunities for collaboration beyond the Abbott Pandemic Defense Coalition’s sixteen teams, currently spanning five continents.