Last week’s movie, Contagion, describes the global outbreak of a virus and the events that followed. The film focuses on various aspects of the viral outbreak, such as the origin of the virus, proliferation of fake news, response by health organizations, and quarantine of cities. There are some really uncanny parallels between the film and the current coronavirus outbreak, and I think the film, which was released in 2011, was a really good choice as our Friday Film. The film did a really great job of leaving the source of the virus for the last scene, so that when the story was over, the audience was still wondering how the virus got its start. Similar to the coronavirus, Cantagion’s fictional virus began when a bat came in contact with pigs, which then was slaughtered and then prepped for a banquet. During the banquet, the chef came into contact with the first patient, which then spread around the world. Similar to today’s events, the coronavirus most likely originated from an animal from a market in Wuhan. In addition to this similarity, I thought that it was interesting how fast fear could propagate through false reporting. A reporter fakes having the virus and claims to cure himself through a homeopathic drug called forsythia, because he stands to profit from it. He also garners mistrust of government agencies, who are actively working to provide a vaccine. Because of his blog’s large audience, he is able to influence people all around the country, and even internationally. I thought that this aspect of the pandemic was very realistic and relevant to today’s situation. It shows just how easy it is to spread fear and false information to an already fearful and paranoid audience, which can be deadly during a viral outbreak. 

Overall, I really enjoyed this film, both for its relevance to today’s events and how well they portrayed various aspects of an outbreak, such as governmental response, public reaction, the scientific aspects of the virus, etc.