Aside from the usual Hollywood sci-fi flourishes, the movie Contagion fairly accurately portrays some aspects a global-scale viral outbreak, according to SFI scientists who have modeled the evolution and spread of pathogens, and the fear that accompanies an outbreak.
“This movie reminds us of the importance of a quick and effective medical and humanitarian response,” says SFI Science Board member and External Professor Lauren Ancel Meyers, an epidemiologist at University of Texas at Austin, in a Daily Texan article discussing the film’s plausibility. Contagion’s premise of a fast-spreading and deadly virus wreaking global havoc emphasizes the need to understand the highly interconnected and conditional nature of the virus, actions of responders, and behaviors of people.
Read the Daily Texan article (September 9, 2011)
The film also portrays the spread of uncertainty and hysteria that accompanies a viral outbreak, factors that can make people behave unpredictably and complicate the response, notes SFI External Professor Joshua Epstein, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, in an article in the Joplin Independent. Understanding the dynamics of fear, distrust, and other human emotions can help minimize the spread and intensity of an outbreak.
Read the Joplin Independent article (September 7, 2011)