FRONTLINE

>> TAKUMA (speaking Portuguese and Kurikuru): >> (speaking Portuguese): >> (speaking Portuguese): >> (speaking Portuguese): (cheers, whistles, horns) >> XIE (speaking Mandarin): >> Nobody should have to die alone.

Yet that's what was happening every single day.

>> This is the New York City Police Department... >> I don't think that Black Lives Matter would have had the traction had it not been for corona, they are inextricably linked.

(chanting) >> I don't know how we will go back to the normal life.

Everywhere there is a shift that's happening.

>> TAKUMA: >> NARRATOR: Now the conclusion of "The Virus That Shook The World."

(deep exhale) >> My name's Pastor Tony Spell.

Many people ask, "Why won't you come sit down in a studio with us and talk?"

or "Why won't you travel?"

And at any given time, my flock deserves access to their pastor, and I'm called upon on all hours of the day and night to minister to my church, and that is my conviction.

>> Today I'm issuing a stay-at- home order for the entire state of Louisiana.

My order limits public gatherings to no more than ten people, and I know that all of this may be overwhelming for some of you to hear... >> Right!

(cheers and applause) (indistinct shouting) ...in the house of God, which is the church of the living God!

You want to handcuff me, come on, bring it on.

I would rather die fighting, living apostolic, than to have lived like a coward.

(cheers and applause) We will comply when they sell popsicles in hell and set up an ice-skating rink in the lake of fire.

We will never comply with an order that says to close the church.

(objects rattling) >> So I baked the cakes earlier, this is homemade carrot cake.

(pan clangs) You gotta be good for a cake to come out of a pan like this.

We're gonna have coffee and carrot cake after bible study tonight.

My name is Belinda Spell, my father is the Bishop B.A.

Spell, who actually founded the church in 1959.

Pastor Tony Spell is my nephew.

>> The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want!

(cheers and applause) >> I knew that our pastor was going to disobey the governor's order.

It's not something he told me, but I knew it.

>> Pastor Tony Spell is charged with six counts of disobeying government power.

Spell continued to defy the governor's orders to stay at home and social distance for several weeks now.

>> Parishioners are going to his services, they are not practicing the six-foot rule.

>> The church is the hospital for the soul and the spirit of man.

We are not posing any more threat than people who are at Walmart by the hundreds right now.

(cheering) When I heard about the virus, I knew right off this was politically motivated hoax.

Not the virus, the virus is real, but the hype.

When I saw the images of the temporary hospitals and morgues in New York, I knew right off the bat that this was propagandism by the mainstream media.

They have to make it look like our president was doing a terrible job in his response to the virus, and this is why all these people are dying.

23 and 8... 23 and 8 in your old Schofield bibles... God didn't mean for you to be far away from your brother and your sister.

>> When I first heard that the governor was ordering the churches to close down, I thought, "Well, that's insane," because that's all I knew was church.

Churches will never stop having church, people will always go to church.

And, um, then real quickly, we saw churches did stop.

>> This is one of the holiest weeks of the year for Christians and Jews around the world.

Today is Palm Sunday, marking the start of Easter Week, and Passover begins at sundown on Wednesday.

But to celebrate during this reality of social distancing, so many people are turning to online services.

>> (indistinct) >> Hello, brother, how are you?

What's the name of this mosque?

Harrow Mosque?

>> Harrow Mosque, yeah.

>> Harrow Mosque, okay.

They say that the risks are limited after somebody dies, but we don't take any chances.

(deep exhale) (drawer shutting) My name is Abu Mumin.

I live in East London.

By profession, I'm a social worker.

I'm somebody who...

I don't do very well, I'll be very honest.

I don't do very well when it comes to end of life and burial work.

I just can't handle the intensity, you know?

But then I remind myself that we need to help those most in need, in their hour of need.

In normal circumstances, you are able to go take part in the ritual washing.

See your loved one, say your goodbyes.

With COVID-19, you just couldn't do any of that.

Many families haven't had a proper closure.

>> There does appear to be a disproportionate impact of the virus upon BME communities.

>> Figures suggest that a third of patients who are critically ill in hospital are of non-white ethnicity.

>> Where I am from, Newham, Newham had one of the highest, if not the highest, COVID cases in the country.

I was really worried.

>> COVID-19 has preyed on Newham like nowhere else, a mixture of deprivation and ethnicity allowing the disease to exploit the area's mainly Black and Asian population.

>> Shall we start getting ready?

Some families didn't have the means to pay for their burial, and this is what we did, we offered that service.

We are a small charity.

Within the first two months of COVID, the number of burials that we did, we surpassed what we'd normally do in a whole year.

(man praying) There is a young father who's had a six-year-old child and leave behind a widow.

(indistinct chatter) >> More brothers, please!

(indistinct chatter) >> Be careful.

>> How old was your husband, Sheouli?

51 years old.

>> When her husband passed away, she was alone, she was a housewife.

In many of the cases that we've dealt with, the main breadwinner died of COVID-19.

(man talking in background) (chatter, children's voices) >> PRAKASH (speaking Hindi): (percussive music playing) (singing in Hindi): (speaking Hindi): (singing in Hindi): (song continues, whistling) (speaking Hindi): (indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter) (dogs barking, chatter) >> With our stance came 24-hours-a-day, seven-day-a-week surveillance.

They want to see everybody that comes into my church, so when somebody gets sick with this virus and dies, they are going to use it against me.

>> (clears throat) My name is Jeff Wittenbrink, I'm an attorney here in Baton Rouge, I've been practicing for 33 years this year.

When I went out there to his home, the pastor pointed out where all the cameras were located.

And then while I was there, the pastor's wife said, "Look, there's a vehicle there right now, they're watching us."

>> We have our rights, too... Y'all need to shut that church down!

(car honking) >> We had a couple of protesters out in the front of our church, um, so... and it got ugly.

>> They would grab their crotches, use four-letter words.

Stand in front of people's vehicles.

So, I approached one of those protesters.

>> He sees him there and he decides he's going to back up and get out and go talk to this person.

So he backs up the bus to go talk to him.

And they used that scene to charge him with aggravated assault, that he's using his vehicle as a weapon.

It was crazy, just a crazy charge.

>> Pastor Tony Spell planned a news conference Tuesday morning.

As he approached reporters, Central police officers approached him.

>> A Louisiana pastor who has ignored limits on church gatherings is now facing a lot of legal trouble.

Pastor Tony Spell arrested today for reportedly trying to hit a protester with a bus.

>> Watching our pastor get arrested was hurtful.

It hurt really bad because you know his heart, and I get emotional just talking about it.

But you know his heart and you know how much he does for people.

>> We urge people not to go to the church, you know, just for safety reasons, because of health reasons.

He's already had one of his parishioners pass away.

(crowd singing) >> We all went down to the prison and paid his bail and got him out, and he kept going.

(cheering) He has no fear.

He's, he didn't let it stop him.

He didn't say, "Okay, now, wow, I got arrested, now I might go to prison, okay, I'm gonna do what you say do."

No.

I think it drove him even more.

>> I will not give up my rights to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I will see you in church tonight at 7: 30, where I'm going to preach.

(cheers and applause) >> Hallelujah!

>> A large group of men walked to the front door of my house and ushered me from the front door of my house to my church pulpit.

And they dared the law enforcement to come and take me.

So the law enforcement not only would have had to take me, they would have had to take every man in my church with me.

>> From the fourth of July, your household will be able to meet with one other household at a time, including staying over.

Opening up more of Britain in this COVID-secure way is only possible if everyone continues to stay alert to the risks of coronavirus.

And this obviously requires everyone to act responsibly.

Which I have no doubt they will do.

I want to stress, you should remain socially distant from anyone outside your household.

>> The government's chief medical adviser has warned against large gatherings in hot weather after half a million people flocked to beaches in Bournemouth today.

A major incident was declared in Bournemouth on what's been the hottest day of the year.

>> There was a level of understanding from me that completely got why people wanted to do that.

Children needed to get out, we needed to get out, enjoy some sunshine, and we were being told to go out and enjoy ourselves.

>> We're trying to bring back, you know, the things that make life worth living.

>> The headline grabber, an "eat out to help out" discount, this 50% off bills in restaurants, cafes, pubs, up to a tenner per head.

>> I'm Amie Burbridge, I'm a consultant in acute medicine.

I work at Coventry Hospital.

End of May, June time, the weather was getting warmer.

The number of people coming into hospital had drastically reduced.

It was actually surprisingly quite quiet.

It was almost like after this very large peak, it was just a lull, it was really bizarre.

We started to think about the future and it was over, life was going back to normal.

And we thought the children needed a break, I really wanted a break!

So we ended up driving to Switzerland.

We camped literally in the middle of nowhere.

We did lots of walks up beautiful mountains.

It felt like we were in "The Sound of Music."

It was definitely the right thing to do, although I do feel slight...

I do feel bad that we did leave the country, and... Maybe we shouldn't have gone.

We all sort of knew that a second wave would come, but we didn't really want to think about that, we wanted to enjoy the moment.

It was almost like it was the calm before the storm that we knew what was going to come.

But we didn't know when.

>> There have now been over ten million reported cases of the virus worldwide and more than half a million deaths have been attributed to COVID-19.

The W.H.O.

warned that a vaccine was still a distant goal.

>> The worst is yet to come.

I'm sorry to say that.

But with this kind of environment and condition, we fear the worst.

>> Brazil maintains its status as the country with the second-highest number of deaths from coronavirus.

It's second only to the United States.

>> Not even these numbers are prompting the president to change course.

In the middle of a pandemic, many Brazilians feel they're lacking leadership.

>> (speaking Portuguese): >> (speaking Kurikuru): (laughs) >> (speaking Portuguese): (indistinct chatter) (birds squawking) (playing instruments) >> Within the Bangladeshi community, there are a large number of mainly male people who are out working to provide for their families.

And they are at risk of being exposed to COVID-19, more than the majority of us.

(chatter) Now there are lots of widows.

(speaking Bengali): Sweet.

Marshmallow.

>> Gummy bears.

>> Yeah, gummy bear.

What's your name?

>> (quietly): My name is Oscar.

>> Sorry?

>> My name is Oscar.

>> Oscar!

My name is Abu, Abu Mumin.

Okay, you enjoy, this is for you, okay?

Okay.

When Sheouli's husband passed away, on the day of the burial, those people who were there really spoke highly of her husband, who provided for his family.

He was a key worker.

Because of him going out to work, he got COVID-19.

(speaking Bengali): >> SHEOULI (speaking Bengali): >> MUMIN (speaking Bengali): >> SHEOULI: >> Mm-hmm.

>> SHEOULI: >> I.C.U., mm-hmm.

>> Oscar!

How old are you?

>> I'm six years old.

>> You are?

>> I'm six years old.

>> You are six years old!

I have a little boy who is ten years old.

Do you want to see his picture?

Come on, then, I'll show you.

That's me.

Me and him.

Me and him were having a play fight.

>> Yeah.

>> Hm, did you use to have play fight with your dad?

>> Yeah, my daddy died.

>> Well, we... you know, he's gone to Allah, buddy.

You know where that is?

He's gone to Jannah, yeah?

Yeah?

You pray for him?

>> My mummy does.

>> The numbers of people that we supported really exceeded our expectations.

(speaking Bengali) At times, I felt like we were the third or the fourth emergency services.

(indistinct chatter) (indistinct chatter, engine idling) (children playing) >> Tyrone, can you go and bring this to Miss Latoyah?

>> Mm-hm.

>> Down there.

(knocks on door) >> There are many impoverished people in our congregation.

They can't pay their bills, they don't know where their next meal is coming from.

Well, one of the missions of the church is to help those people.

(chatter) In our local community, say, an 80-mile radius, we pick up children of all ages and children of all races and bring them into this community that is a mostly Caucasian, white community.

>> Hi, my name's Diane, now we out here outreaching for Life Tabernacle Church.

>> We provide meals for people every time they come to church.

>> Hey, we have a church bus... >> We offer people job training.

>> When I got out of prison, I was homeless and I walked these streets.

God delivered me from drugs and alcohol, mental illness.

He's delivered me from depression.

He's delivered me from homosexuality.

He's healed me from hepatitis C. >> Why would anybody who is a church want to close their doors because of a virus?

>> When the church doors closed, people like me had no, no place.

>> This ain't just a weekend church for me, this is my life.

>> Without our church, people would not have hope.

So we refused to comply with government orders.

But I was never afraid nor worried for one moment of the virus.

Because if we were to die, our last breath on Earth is our first breath in Heaven, in eternity.

If we were to all die of the virus, we still were going to practice our religion.

>> The fastest-spreading outbreak in the world at the moment is in India.

It took India just 11 days to add another one million cases of the virus, and the growth of its outbreak has certainly outpaced the U.S., Brazil, and Russia.

>> PRAKASH (speaking Hindi): >> (speaking Hindi): (kids playing in distance) >> PRAKASH (speaking Hindi): >> This is a very popular government headed by a very popular prime minister, but it seems that now there is some skepticism also creeping into that.

I feel like there is a general sense of giving up, and a surrendering to destiny.

People are getting tired, adherence to social distancing and mask wearing is going down.

>> PRAKASH (speaking Hindi): (calls out) (percussive music playing) (percussive music playing) (percussive music playing) >> (chanting) (people exclaim) >> TAKUMA (speaking Portuguese): (calling, indistinct chatter) >> TAKUMA: >> Breaking pandemic news, the United States just topped nine million confirmed coronavirus cases, the number of Americans dead in the pandemic has now surpassed 229,000 people.

>> Hospitalizations are going up, individuals in the I.C.U.s are going up... >> So what does that very, very grim milestone mean for our country?

(siren wailing) >> I want you to know our nation's going to defeat this terrible China virus, as we call it.

Through the power of the American spirit, I think more than anything else.

>> But although we have the greatest document in the world called the Constitution, that's not why we have pushed back today.

We have pushed back because of the word of God, in which the Constitution was written from.

>> You're just trying to sort it all out and get it all right in your mind, you know, what's right, what's wrong, what should we do, what shouldn't we do.

(applause) I got COVID.

I was very sick.

I got well, but I was sick-- I wouldn't wish it on nobody.

>> At the name of Jesus, demons tremble.

At the name of Jesus, sickness has to get up and go out.

>> I've had a couple of friends, close friends, die from COVID.

That hurt, because I had COVID and I got well.

And I'm, like, "What's the deal?

They got COVID and they passed away."

>> At the name of Jesus, I command you come out of him, Legions!

>> I got COVID and I got a pretty bad case of it, and I was actually frankly pretty shocked about that.

Um, ended up in the hospital for 11 days and lost almost 30 pounds.

I was actually comforted by pastor's words.

Because he had talked about the fact that, you know, some people would get sick, and some people might even die.

But his point, and it was well taken by me, was that nobody forces anybody to go to church, but the people that go really want to be there.

(cheers and applause) >> When you come to meet Jesus, you're going to get delivered of your problem.

God's going to pick you up and turn you around, set your feet on higher ground.

I've never met an enemy that God can't defeat.

I've never met a problem that... >> Whoo!

>> Yeah!

(car horns honking) >> I'll deal with this pandemic responsibly.

To beat the virus, we first got to beat Donald Trump.

(cheers and applause) He's the virus.

>> And sure as hell, I caught it, and now I guess they say I'm immune, so you can... (cheers and applause) I'm immune!

(cheers and applause) >> All right, everybody, we're glad that you're joining us for the 2020 election party.

(cheers and applause) This election is the most personal election for me that I've ever voted in.

If it doesn't go my way, how I voted, then I'm gonna spend time behind bars.

(indistinct chatter) I think that Donald James Trump is going to win tonight.

>> Tonight, Joe Biden has got 164,000, so there's still a lot of votes to be counted in Detroit.

>> And he's managed to hold most of Pittsburgh, you know, we think he's not going to win in Arizona.

>> It's not good.

Not good at all.

>> I want to thank the American people for their tremendous support.

Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight.

A very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people.

(cheers and applause) >> God bless America, 'cause we're gonna need it.

Because there is going to be civil unrest.

All kind of problems, rioting and looting in the streets.

Civil unrest... comma... and years of court battles.

(phone chirps) That's not good for me or my children.

(sighs): All right.

(crowd chattering) (whistles, percussion) >> (calling): Freedom!

(whistling, shouting) (indistinct voice over megaphone) (audio playing from laptop) >> They're telling us there's a pandemic, it's a pack of lies to brainwash you and keep you in order.

>> Join us for goodness' sake, and stop serving the psychopaths.

(cheers and applause) >> People started to say COVID was a hoax, it was all made up, it was all rubbish.

Why?

What more do people need to really realize that this is true?

People are dying, huge numbers of people.

I just want to say to them, "Come to work with me today, we'll see, we'll see what's (bleep) or not."

>> Britain has become the first country in Europe to record more than 50,000 coronavirus deaths.

The prime minister warned the U.K. wasn't yet out of the... Boris Johnson said the U.K. was moving to a new phase in its battle against the virus.

>> The feelings going into that second wave were very different to the first wave; the first wave was very much, "We're all in this together."

Not to say that that wasn't there in the second wave, but it was more, like, "Oh, God, now we know what's happening.

We know that the long hours are coming, and..." The worst thing was the anticipation that we were going to be seeing lots of very sick people who we couldn't do anything for.

>> The immediate pressures on the NHS are still with us.

With many wards already full, health unions say staff are complaining of feeling exhausted... >> It was... (deep exhalation) relentless.

(beeping) (deep exhale) It's...

It's like an armor, you have to protect yourself from what you see day in, day out, because if you don't, you take it home with you.

But over the last few months, that armor's gone.

And I'll be, like, I've lost my ability to smile and be happy.

And that was a lot of people who were experiencing that.

>> There's reason for cautious optimism that there may be an end in sight.

>> A vaccine developed by scientists at Oxford is set to transform the battle against coronavirus... >> The results of clinical trials have shown that the vaccine is 93% effective... >> The eighth of December was a particularly special day.

Well, it was incredible for the whole world, but in particular for our hospital at Coventry, because we were the first hospital in the whole world to deliver the vaccine, which... just blows my mind.

>> This is Margaret Keenan, who you can see there, she is 90.

She was the first person to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech jab at the University College Hospital in Coventry.

>> That has just happened within the last few minutes... >> It was slightly strange coming to work and there being press everywhere.

And we didn't know it was going to happen.

It was incredible.

It was a really magical moment and for the hospital, as well.

It really lifted our spirits and our morale.

>> And so like every other European country facing similar challenges, we've come to this moment, this great global festival, a turning point.

A time of year that is of immense emotional, spiritual importance.

It is with a very heavy heart I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned.

>> Jill and I send our prayers, as I'm sure all of you do, to all who are facing this dark winter with an empty seat at the dinner table.

>> My greatest fear was that... (clears throat) ...humanity will not learn anything.

This is why I'm trying to, you know, focus on the little joys.

>> PRAKASH: >> IVAN (speaking Russian): >> I think COVID will be with us in some form or another for the rest of our lifetimes and for our our children's lifetimes.

And our children children's lifetimes.

It's massive.

You know, if you would have said to me a year, 18 months ago, we'd be living like this, there is no way I would have believed you.

Right, it's New Year's Eve.

(coughs) >> And she's got COVID-- chocolate!

>> It's 8:00 and we're doing a family New Year's Eve quiz.

It's just not, it's just not working, is it?

So that was basically a snapshot... (coughing) ...of our New Year's Eve.

The whole house is riddled with COVID.

We all had positive COVID tests and it's the first proper day, really, I guess, we've been out of bed all day... (yawns) Or eaten in seven or eight days.

COVID is terrible.

Good riddance, (no audio) 2020.

Because I tell you what, 2021 cannot be any worse than 2020.

>> Go to pbs.org/frontline to see the pandemic from the perspective of teens around the world.

And to see our complete collection of films about the pandemic.

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