Last week, Netflix premiered its new docuseries, Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak—and the timing couldn’t have been more prescient.

In late December, China alerted the World Health Organization to several cases of pneumonia in the city of Wuhan. After ruling out the SARS virus, it was determined on January 7 that the cause of the illnesses was a new coronavirus, which is in the same family as SARS.

By January 22, the day Pandemic debuted on Netflix, the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak had risen to 17 with more than 550 infections—and those numbers have been climbing ever since.

“It is uncanny and disturbing how the two have coincided, but it’s an absolute coincidence,” says Jeremiah Crowell, executive producer and showrunner of Pandemic, which is produced by Zero Point Zero (Broken, Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown). “But I think it does go to show how pertinent some of the subjects in the series are. There are real things out there that are unfolding.”

To date, there have been more than 100 deaths and 4,515 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus across 16 countries including China, Thailand, Japan, France, Canada, Germany, and the United States. The Chinese government is being criticized for its handling of the outbreak, with Wuhan’s mayor offering to resign while pointing blame at Beijing officials whom he says he needed approval from before releasing sensitive information.

Adding to the confusion is the novelty of the virus itself, which has spurred a different kind of outbreak: misinformation. Google, Twitter, and Facebook are combating the spread of conspiracy theories and hoaxes across the internet and social media, including claims that the U.S. government created the virus.

“The one thing I feel good about is that this series exists to help inform people at a time when a lot of people are frightened and want more information,” says Sheri Fink, executive producer of Pandemic and a New York Times correspondent.