Question

Please watch the movie Contagion; write a one-page paper by answering the following questions.

1. What have you learned by watching this movie?

2. How does this movie compared with our current pandemic, ( COVID 19)?

3. Did watching this movie change your perspective on Public Health?

Answer 1

1. Coincidence happens I know. We all know. But it's really a mystery how Scott Z Burns got this idea of writing such a script 9years ago. Did he travel by time machine to future?

Honestly, watching this movie while an actual pandemic like COVID 19 has thrust its way through the world wasn't one of the best decisions I've made. Being fortunate enough to be a social animal turns out not so fortunate in this beautifully crafted movie, where how a single handshake or just by simply touching anything around you can send you spiraling down to the verge of your extinction. Until of course a vaccine is developed.

The gravity of such situations have been portrayed by the struggles of a dad and a daughter having no time to grieve yet having all the time being quarantined, challenges to find peace with the situation (vaccine) by a doctor aided by the chief who dares to take chance in such a horrid situation-which i assure will win your heart. And few other carefully knitted stories of people and the state of the world during such terrible times, will make you wanna re-think every time you make slightest of human contact.
Although mankind had its fair share of pandemics in the history where black death, smallpox, cholera and more recently SARS and even AIDS rolled the dice wiping out millions at once. This state of helplessness is heightened with the influence of social media,news etcetra, which is also very logically placed in the movie.Stellar cast, jaw clenching plot and highly paranoia inducing for the government.

2. The origin of the novel coronavirus terrorizing us today is still a mystery to scientists. It will only be solved if they're able to isolate the live virus in a suspected species (like in the movie), which can be difficult.However, like "Contagion," bats are considered by some epidemiologists to be the possible source of the coronavirus.Zoologists, ecologists and disease experts have told CNN that human behaviors -- such as destroying natural habitats -- might be to blame for the transfer of the disease.When bats are stressed, which can occur from destruction of their habitats, their typically strong immune system is challenged, which makes it harder to cope with pathogens they could usually fight off. This allows an increase in infections and the shedding of them.

One theory on the origin of the current coronavirus is that the initial epicenter was likely a "wet market" in Wuhan, China. In "wet markets," wild animals that also may be infected and stressed are held together and sold as food or pets, leading to a mix of viruses and species.Any "zoonotic spillover," or the transfer of disease from animals to humans, is exacerbated by population density and public transport, which make it easy for a virus to spread rapidly.Sick people in the film experienced fevers and profuse sweating, pounding headaches, sore throat and cough but also had seizures, dizziness and frothed at the mouth when they passed.

The signs of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, Covid-19 are similar, but there haven't been any reports of seizures or frothing at the mouth. Covid-19 symptoms include primarily a fever of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius), cough or trouble breathing, according to the CDC.Emergency warning signs of Covid-19 include "persistent pain or pressure in the chest," "bluish lips or face" -- indicating a lack of oxygen -- and sudden mental confusion, fatigue or inability to rouse.Less common symptoms of Covid-19 include those typically experienced during flu and cold: headaches, digestive issues, body aches and fatigue, and a runny nose, sore throat and sneezing.Anosmia, a lack of sense of smell, and dygeusia, a lack of taste, are symptoms that might flag Covid-19 in its early stages among patients with a mild case.Like Covid-19, the film's MEV-1 is a respiratory disease, carried in expelled droplets of saliva from a sneeze or cough or other secretions. It spreads directly between people when those droplets reach the eyes, nose or mouth of an uninfected person.The film's virus is also transmitted by fomites, or surfaces that have been contaminated with infections after sick humans touch them.The spreading of MEV-1 is exacerbated by the average person touching their face a few thousand times per day -- while in between, they're touching door handles, elevator buttons, subway poles and each other.Evidence shows that the novel coronavirus transmits through the same mechanisms, according to the World Health Organization.

3. Actors from "Contagion" recently urged people to "control the contagion" by washing their hands, practicing social distancing and following the advice of health experts In a series of PSAs from Public Health.

In "Contagion," civil unrest rips at the fabric of society, leaving banks and grocery stores ransacked. Police seemed unable to respond to crime, as martial law prohibited travel between states to stop the spread of the virus.That hasn't happened in real life. But, as in the film, a lot of us have spent weeks separated from friends, family and places we love, wondering when the pandemic will end so we can get back to life as we've known it. People are under variations of restrictions on movement, including social distancing guidelines, shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders.