The maker of a documentary about the coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, has said people should put aside their political differences when confronting the “common enemy” of the pandemic.
Hao Wu’s film 76 Hours documents the situation in hospitals in the Chinese city where the virus was first detected.
The director told the PA news agency there is a lot of “finger pointing” and “scapegoating” in the debate around the virus.
Discussing the source of the initial outbreak, he said: “This time it’s Wuhan, China, next time it could be Indonesia, or Hong Kong again, or India, or Africa.
“So let’s not try to say, ‘because the virus erupted there, it’s definitely that country’s entire fault entirely’.
“I’m not saying those sentiments are not valid, they’re certainly human nature, but I just feel like, let’s not be blinded by those sentiments.
“Let’s face this rationally. This is a common, global problem, it’s humanity’s problem.”
Wu added that people who deny the severity of coronavirus make him “so angry”.
“How can you think this is just a bad flu?” he said.
“Obviously it’s not. Somehow we have lost respect for science.
“We don’t even respect facts anymore. It’s disheartening.”
He added that his documentary shows how Wuhan “survived” the outbreak because the people “worked with each other”.
The documentary maker, who lives in New York, added: “That’s how we can survive as well.”
He said the documentary reminds people not to be “so focused on our political differences”.
