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Running head: Contagion Movie Assessment
Contagion Movie Assessment
Katelyn Strasser
Concordia University Nebraska
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The movie Contagion illustrates the world’s reaction to a deadly respiratory disease
outbreak. Many circumstances and details of the movie make the scenario very realistic and
plausible. The movie depicts many real public health agencies working together to stop the
outbreak and find a cure. An epidemiologist from the World Health Organization (WHO) travels
to Hong Kong to find the source of the infection, and the Centers for Disease Control sends an
Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer to Minnesota to track the disease there (Skoll, 2011).
The EIS is a real 2-year post-graduate training epidemiology program for health professionals
and scientists. The officers are sent into the field when disease outbreaks occur in the United
States (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). It is certainly believable to think that
if a disease this deadly appeared, the CDC would be sent to investigate. In the movie, the CDC
also partners with the Minnesota Department of Health. Together, the groups track cases, set up
an area to quarantine the sick, and bring in FEMA to supply food and water (Skoll, 2011).
The movie uses these various public health organizations to show how epidemiological
data is gathered. The epidemiologist from the WHO is sent to Hong Kong to find the original
source of the infection. She uses a variety of methods to collect data including looking into the
personal lives of the deceased and visiting their former homes, and interviewing those
individuals who are currently ill. She asks questions about where they have been, whom they
have been with, and what kind of environmental sources they may have been exposed to. She
even watches video surveillance to find the index person and follow the path of transmission.
The EIS officer in Minnesota goes through a similar process of collecting data. She uses it to
attempt to predict future infection rates (Skoll, 2011).
Oftentimes, the work of public health officials is met with resistance, and this movie
demonstrated it by showing the difficult circumstances that the epidemiologists had to face. In
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Hong Kong, the Chinese officials continually question the epidemiologist’s work and assertions.
It’s not until the video footage supports her claims that they know the outbreak started there.
The Chinese government probably acts this way because they would not want the start of an
epidemic associated with their country. The EIS officer also confronts opposition from the
Minnesota Health Department. They seem skeptical of the epidemiologist’s methods. They are
less convinced that the epidemiological data the officer is collecting is the way to combat this
outbreak. Interestingly, the movie sensationalizes these characters a little by having the WHO
member kidnapped as a ransom for the vaccine, and by having the EIS officer contract the
disease and die (Skoll, 2011).
The death of the EIS officer showed the seriousness and potential impact of an infectious
disease outbreak. Many other facts about contagious diseases were included in this movie. The
movie mentioned that the containment protocol that included quarantining and screening for
symptoms was the same protocol as was conducted during the SARS outbreak in 2003. The
movie also discussed how this disease could be spread through the air in respiratory droplets or
through fomites, which is contact transmission. This is how many other infections like the
common cold, strep, and meningitis are spread. From a medical perspective, the movie was
accurate in depicting the symptoms of such a disease. It showed infected individuals developing
a fever, sore throat, and cough. Other symptoms indicating encephalitis include a headache and
seizures, both commonly experienced by the infected in the movie. The movie also explained
how difficult it would be to develop a vaccine for a contagious disease like this because the virus
is able to mutate, and it’s difficult to culture due to its lethal effect on cells (Skoll, 2011).
Past outbreaks such as SARS and H1N1 confirm that an outbreak such as the one in
Contagion is a real possibility. A pandemic of this magnitude would likely shut down public
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transportation, enlist the help of military services, and potentially cause episodes of violence,
such as the looting seen in the movie. Individuals, like the reporter in the movie, may also try to
use the situation to commit fraud for financial benefit. It is a little frightening to think that
statistically, an influenza pandemic occurs three times a century. When the last outbreak of
H1N1 occurred in 2009, scientists were unsure if this would be the next great pandemic (CDC
Foundation, 2013).
Due to this uncertainty, the CDC is always prepared for the next great pandemic or other
small outbreaks. The CDC’s Emergency Operations Center monitors and organizes emergency
response systems to public health threats domestically and internationally. If an outbreak like
the one in the movie were to occur, the CDC would work with city and state health departments.
The CDC could potentially assume many roles such as conducting surveillance, lab testing and
analysis, collecting epidemiological data, and managing the care of infected patients. As in the
movie, the CDC’s utmost objective would be to “determine the cause of the illness, the source of
the infection/virus/toxin, learn how it is transmitted and how readily it is spread, how to break
the cycle of transmission and prevent further cases and how patients can best be treated” (CDC,
2013). The CDC would also send medical teams to give treatment to patients and CDC scientists
would work to engineer a vaccine and make it available to the public (CDC, 2013). As the
movie Contagion illustrates, there is a great deal of uncertainty and a potential for calamity
during pandemics. However, it is comforting knowing the agencies like the CDC have protocols
and programs in place to help during these events.
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Contagion Movie Assessment
References
CDC Foundation. (2013). How CDC saves lives by controlling real global disease
outbreaks. Retrieved from http://www.cdcfoundation.org/content/howcdc-saves-lives-controlling-real-global-disease-outbreaks
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). Epidemic intelligence service
(EIS). Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/EIS/
Skoll, J., Polaire, M., King, Jonathan., & Soderbergh, S. (2011). Contagion. United
States of America: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.