Assignment 5: Contagion

1. Give a brief (No more than 5 sentences) summary of the plot of the movie and discuss your reaction to it from your new public health perspective. If you have seen the movie before, do you see anything differently now that you are taking this class?

Contagion is a film that explores what would happen if a fatal, highly contagious disease were to begin in the world's population. It follows the various days after the outbreak, starting with the infection of patient zero, a character named Beth. I have seen the movie before and the same thing that scared me then about the film scares me now, even with my new public health perspective: the realism. All the events in the film all seem more than possible in today's world. However I would say I feel safer with my public health perspective because I understand the steps the characters take or should have taken to contain the outbreak. Though the movie is obviously meant for everyone regardless of public health knowledge, I see the steps it took to accurately portray what the public response to an actual outbreak would be. For example, Mears and Orante's roles and purpose are more clear and relevant to the issue.

2. Briefly explain the concepts; outbreak, outbreak investigation, isolation, and quarantine and how are they relevant to the movie?

An outbreak is a sudden increase in the incidence of a disease which was the premise of the film. Outbreak investigation includes verifying the diagnosis (the actual disease), making sure the number of people infected actually is an outbreak, mapping the spread of it, developing and implementing control systems, and studying how to stop it. A number of different characters did these various steps which seems accurate as an outbreak investigation would entail the work of many people. For example, Mears sets up containment camps, Orantes studies the origin of the disease, and Hextall researches for a vaccine. The outbreak investigation is the multi-factor response to an outbreak. Isolation and quarantine both separates people from the general public. But people are isolated when they are already sick in order to protect the general population from getting sick from them. People are quarantined when they have been exposed to the disease but are not ill who are separated because they may still be infectious. Both examples of isolation and quarantine occur in the film. Mears is isolated when she becomes sick and Mitch is quarantined because of his contact with Beth.

3. Since 9/11, Public Health preparedness has been an important topic and the movie contagion illustrates many of the important reasons for it. Please review Chapter 29 in the textbook and then give one or two examples of situations in the movie where public health agencies ideally would have been better "prepared". Explain. (Hint: Think about risk communication, hospital facilities and staffing, public services, food distribution)

Like during Hurricane Katrina, there was not enough food distributed to the public during the outbreak. This caused looting and probably more infections because people had to venture out to find food. Though the film's setting is rather unclear (all of America seems to have been affected, but not completely destroyed), I would say that the government in the film needed to address food distribution more, if it was possible. Of course, if all of the country was affected, getting more food could be near impossible or completely dependent on the generosity of other countries. But better food distribution definitely is necessary to minimize infections and other damages that exacerbate the outbreak. Another issue I found was with the CDC's treatment of Dr. Sussman who eventually found the vaccine cure for the disease. Instead of ordering him to shut down his insecure lab and essentially just stop all his work, he should have been transported to Cheever's lab as he clearly had valuable knowledge to help with the development of a vaccine. It seemed rather inefficient and unfair to shut down his lab and not give him any other options.