Sanjay Gupta Investigates Fictional ‘Zombie Fungus’ Featured on HBO Hit Show The Last of Us — CNN’s Corporate Partner

 

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is an award-winning medical journalist who received deserved praise for his sober analysis and insight during the Covid-19 pandemic.

And according to his recent investigation into the perils of “zombie fungus” — which is featured in HBO’s series The Last of Us — he is also willing to be something of a corporate promoter.  (CNN and HBO are part of the same Discovery-Warner Bros. corporation. Synergy!)

Co-host Don Lemon opened the segment with a live look into Austin, Texas, adding, “that’s the starting point of The Last of Us that chronicles a zombie apocalypse by fungus and has a lot of us wondering ‘could it happen in real life?’ Could it? Our chief medical correspondent is Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Good morning. Is fungus, this kind of fungus, actually a threat?”

The Last of Us is a compelling new HBO series based on a video game and stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. The showrunner is Craig Mazin, who also created the critically acclaimed Chernobyl series, also on HBO. The Last of Us is just four episodes in, and it’s already getting a lot of buzz and rave reviews.

This leads us to the segment on CNN This Morning, which sought to answer the question if a zombie fungus could really cause an apocalyptic and dystopian future. So they brought in a medical expert to answer the question. Dr. Gupta’s investigation came in his first 20 seconds, saying, “that’s not a real threat.”

But the segment went on for another two-plus minutes, which cynical viewers may have seen as a quality promotion for the HBO series. Again, CNN and HBO are both part of the same corporate family.

To Dr. Gupta’s credit, he extracted as much science as is reasonably possible from the segment, speaking of symbiotic relationships in the natural world. But that didn’t make it feel any less like branded content sponsored by HBO.

In the event anyone felt awkward about the segment, Poppy Harlow spoke of the elephant in the room, saying, “I have to tell you, when they told us about this segment, I was like, no way is Sanjay going to do that until I realized it’s a real thing. It’s a real thing, and now we kind of understand it thanks to your brain.”

“You’ve got it. Thank you,” Gupta replied. “No, I had the same thought initially when I heard about the segment. Then I started to dig into it. It fascinates me to see how these pathogens can change behavior. It is wild to dig into.”

“Again, it doesn’t happen in humans,” he made clear again, “but it is wild to dig into.”

“You can catch the show on HBO and HBO Max,” Lemon wrapped up.

Watch above via CNN.

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Colby Hall is the Founding Editor of Mediaite.com. He is also a Peabody Award-winning television producer of non-fiction narrative programming as well as a terrific dancer and preparer of grilled meats.