Contagion was released in 2011, and its popularity fed off of growing fears that a highly infectious disease might rage through the human population, given how globalized the world has become. It showed how the disease was transmitted, from bat to pig to human, and its travel through the population via topical transmission. An interesting aspect was the response by public health agencies, which the movie focused on a great deal. From a public health perspective, the movie accurately showed this range of and how easily a disease with a short incubation period and high rate of transmission can spread through the world. It began with the first victim and the cinematography effectively accentuated where people touched and coughed on. Also, it showed the amalgam of organizations involved in responding to the crisis – scientists, police, emergency medical technicians, political figures, pharmaceuticals, investigative epidemiologists, the media, and regular laypeople. Essentially, it leaves us with the feeling that no one is protected (well, expect for the people that may be immune, like Matt Damon’s character Mitch Emhoff).
An outbreak occurs when an illness is occurring at a higher rate than it would on average in a certain area, and an outbreak investigation is a series of steps taken to establish the presence of the outbreak, hypothesize about it, understand the outbreak, and hopefully through this increase in knowledge lessens the future severity of it. It is quite scientifically structured. Isolation and quarantine, while they sound like synonyms, actually are different measures taken to control an outbreak. Isolation is used to separate ill people from those who are healthy, while quarantine is used to restrict the movement of people who may have been exposed to a disease to see if they become ill. These concepts were put into play in the movie when authorities were attempting to indentify and control the disease. There were mentions in the news portions of “clusters of outbreaks” which eventually spread and the outbreak investigation in the movie attempted to identify the initial hosts, create a vaccine, and lessen the rate of transmission through campaigns and other measures. Isolation occurred with the road block that the military set up to prevent people from crossing state lines and entering Wisconsin, as well as within homes to prevent transmission. And Emhoff was quarantined in the hospital after his wife and step-son died of the illness, but he was found to be immune.
I would hope that agencies should be better prepared for the response to the looting and lawlessness that took place after the disease began to ravage the world. I understand mass rioting is hard to control, and it is a scary thought that is difficult find a solution to, but that modern response systems would hopefully be better. I read a novel about the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, and the scenes of anarchy reminded me of the way an 18th century outbreak was described. A more modern approach to such issues would definitely need to be devised.
Also, during the epidemic in the movie, the food distribution was greatly lacking. It is rare that food would need to be distributed on a large scale in the United States, and it is interesting and disconcerting to imagine what kind of a plan is in place if that needed to occur. But in the movie, the agencies were constantly running out of supplies, and the fact that people were left to fend for themselves so much seems hard to believe. Scary to imagine!
Ginny, great job with this post. I definitely agree that it is scary to think that our government doesn't have a strong enough plan for preparedness if such an event were to happen in our country. I also agree that the food distribution was very weak, and I think that this caused a lot of the societal issues that were consequences of the virus spreading. I think we need to have a prepared plan to deal with things such as distribution and care, but also the lawlessness and anarchy that you described. This is definitely a realistic and scary issue to think about.
ReplyDeleteGood job!
Kelley Hussey
Ginny:
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. I like how you not only integrated the vocab terms into your discussion, but also historical examples. Unfortunately, mass panic is a threat just as dangerous as the disease itself.
You also brought up the point of food distribution and rationing. That is a very difficult topic to handle - how can food and water and medicine be distributed safely, and is it even possible to have enough to feed the entire population? The United States alone has 300 million people, and those abroad may be in far worse situations. I wonder how Europe or East Asia may handle such disasters, with their extremely high population density.
Great posting
Adrian
Ginny,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! Your writing style paints a vivid picture of what happened in the movie. You also do a great job of distinguishing between isolation and quarantine, which is important to grasp. I also agree with you that the legal system could have been better prepared to respond to the social chaos that arose during the outbreak and that it's scary to imagine such poor food distribution system. However, I believe what the movie depicted was not too far fetched. I lived in LA during the 1991 LA riot and it was quite scary to see all the looting that was going on--even when there was not a mass-scale outbreak going on.
Here are some of my thoughts on the assignment. The movie Contagion deals with how the public and the medical community react to the spread of a deadly virus. Chaos ensues among the general public even as officials from the WHO and the CDC work diligently to find a way to combat the virus and to stop its deadly trail. It shows human beings at their worst (e.g. a quack who sells a “cure” to profit off of others’ misfortune) as well as their best (sacrificial work of the CDC officer who falls victim to the virus, CDC officer who injects herself with the potential vaccine, etc.). An outbreak is a sudden increase in incidence of disease or event. Outbreak investigation is careful data gathering/inquiry into a sudden increase in incidence of disease or event. Isolation is “the separation of a person or group of persons from other people to prevent the spread of infection” (CDC), while quarantine is “restriction of activities or limitation of freedom of movement of those presumed exposed to a communicable disease in such a manner as to prevent effective contact with those not so exposed” (CDC). These terms are relevant to the movie since there was an outbreak of a novel virus, various characters in the movie (from CDC and WHO) engaged in outbreak investigation and various characters were isolated or quarantined (e.g. Matt Damon’s character was quarantined until he was proven to be uninfected) during the outbreak. The movie also illustrated how public health agencies could have been better prepared: for example, there was not enough hospital personnel nor enough facility to deal with the outbreak and public services was not prepared to handle trash collection in the setting of deaths from the virus that depleted workers.