This blog is discusses aspects of the movie “Contagion” directed by Steven Soderbergh.
Beth returns home from Hong Kong, while she is ill. She infects her son and they both die but her husband (Mitch) is immune. The virus spreads around the world rapidly but health officials do not immediately realise the severity. The CDC identifies the virus and develops a vaccine, while the world is crumbling around them. This movie show how important public health is. Doctors could only treat the virus in individuals after they had been infected, which is both too late and ineffective. Public health officials try to contain/treat the virus on a large scale, which is much more efficient than treating only individuals.
An outbreak occurs when the number of people with an illness is significantly higher than the norm. An outbreak investigation is following cases (looking at all those exposed), attempting to identify the cause, diagnose the problem and then implements treatment. Isolation is the separation of people who are ill from healthy people. Quarantine is the separation of people who have been exposed to an illness (to see if they develop symptoms) from those who have not been exposed. All of these were in the movie. There was a virus outbreak, the CDC conducted a nation-wide and worldwide investigation, Mitch was quarantined and they attempted to isolate those who were ill but the number of those who were was too great.
There are many ways that the CDC and other authorities could have been better prepared. Most importantly, authorities need to be better prepared for disasters. There did not seem that there was a plan in place to implement. In all fairness, no one could have expected how far reaching the virus would be – but they should have been some sort of general emergency plan. For example, there were not enough blankets for the ill in isolation; the dead were put into hastily constructed mass graves, which could damage the water supply. Also, public services stopped, creating risks of different diseases and health issues. Since everyone was panicked, crime skyrocketed – the authorities should have planned on using the military sooner. Finally, there was not enough food; the plan should have contemplated how to get food to people.
Another issue that could have been better prepared was the spread of information. For example, when Mitch and his daughter were traveling to another city they ended up being turned around on the outskirts, like many others. To address this, there should have been a way to mass communicate, like emergency channels. Also, there was a serious spread of misinformation. Of course there are always people that are going to take advantage of a situation for profit but this could have been better combatted. The CDC was tight-lipped about the virus for too long, so when they started releasing concrete information, people still believed that they were holding out on more information.
On the farm we had an outbreak of a pulmonary respiratory virus in our cattle herd. Within days we had over a dozen claves got sick and died quickly without any apparent explanation. It took a few autopsies to determine the best course of action. We couldn’t get the cattle to the corral to be treated (so we had to treat them in the pasture), but this was time consuming and in the meantime more calves got sick and died. There was a feeling of being helpless when so many got sick and died so quickly…
Hi Kat,
ReplyDeleteNice blog. I agree that the lack of information given to the public had scary implications throughout the movie. I would hope that some type of strict protocol would prevent the CDC from being so quiet about the virus. But then again, Government protocol had to be disobeyed just so a vaccine could be developed.
Hey Kat,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the lack of information given to the public could result in misinformation to the public and widespread panic. I like that you brought up how the mass graves might effect the water supply and I also agree that implementing the military as a resource can be helpful.
Shawdae
Hello Kat,
ReplyDeleteI found your attention to detail throughout this blog very enjoyable. It seems like you really watched the movie from the perspective of a public health official.
I couldn't agree more about the spread of information. As I watched the movie, I couldn't help but wonder what the government keeps from us, such as what weren't we told about H1N1? It also seems that while the government keeps back information for the better of the people, as you said it ends up complicating things making people feel like too much is being withheld.
Finally, I really enjoyed that you brought together the movie and an experience in your life. It definitely provided a fresh take on the material presented.
Kat – nice job on this blog! You have a nice summary of the movie and show how important public health is in an epidemic’s containment. Your definitions of the requested terms and their relation to parts of the movie were well-done and succinct.
ReplyDeleteYou make a number of good points as to how the public could have been better-prepared. Your comment that no one could have foreseen the extent of spread of the virus is exactly why it’s so difficult to prepare for this type of outbreak. The trick is having a system in place that could be scaled up if needed. That’s just the type of plan that you go on to discuss – having enough supplies like food and blankets, burying people in places that are appropriate and would not affect the water supply, bringing in the military as soon as crime begins to track above baseline levels.
Your point about communication and miscommunication is very important – there are going to be tons of people blogging about their experiences and opinions when and if an outbreak occurs, which can undermine the public officials’ messages. It’s important to know that straying too far from any message has the potential to create uncertainty and possibly panic. Timing of communications is also an important point that you make – as a public official, you don’t want to undermine trust in your organization by not saying anything, but it’s hard to say anything when you don’t know much.
I’m sorry to hear about the disease outbreak that occurred in your cattle, but it illustrates the point that despite full efforts to discover what’s going on, there’s often a delay as more animals or people get sick.
You did a really great job with this blog! I look forward to next week’s.