The movie depicts a fictional pandemic and the step-by-step process by “Contagion” which it is contained (Jacobs 2011). Though the story is fictional and doctored with et al., dramatic action, the plot gives insightful glimpses into how an actual investigation of a disease would be carried out. The story uses actual events for comparison and context, and the fictional investigation of the disease shows how real epidemiological data is collected. It also raises political and ethical questions that face world leaders when a crisis such as a pandemic occurs. Like in the early stages of an actual epidemic, the first step in the movie plot was the reporting of cases of a suspicious disease by local hospitals to the health department officials (CDC, 2013). Once autopsies revealed that the disease had never been encountered, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization got involved (Jacobs 2011). et al., It was stated that the function of the CDC is to find zero,” or the original source “ground of the disease. In order to do this, an investigation of the disease was undertaken. The CDC worked in two divisions. One division worked on locating the outbreaks and containing them, and the second division looked at the virus itself to discover how it functioned and develop a vaccine (Jacobs 2011). et al., CDC representatives working to control the outbreaks first looked at how the disease was transmitted. In the event of an epidemic threat, this is a key step in stopping the spread of a disease (CDC, 2013). The characters talked about which are microbes transmitted “foamites”, through contact with a surface containing the microbes, and droplets”, which are “respiratory inhaled from the breath of a person with the disease (Black, 2008). These are actual facts on how real diseases are transmitted to people and spread (Black, 2008). Next, they calculated the value, which is a statistical value that predicts how many people are likely to be infected by a single infected person (Reluga, Medlock, & Galvani, 2009). This is a real epidemiological
The movie “Contagion” depicts a fictional pandemic and the step-by-step process by which it is contained (Jacobs et al., 2011). Though the story is fictional and doctored with dramatic action, the plot gives insightful glimpses into how an actual investigation of a disease would be carried out. The story uses actual events for comparison and context, and the fictional investigation of the disease shows how real epidemiological data is collected. It also raises political and ethical questions that face world leaders when a crisis such as a pandemic occurs. Like in the early stages of an actual epidemic, the first step in the movie plot was the reporting of cases of a suspicious disease by local hospitals to the health department officials (CDC, 2013). Once autopsies revealed that the disease had never been encountered, the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization got involved (Jacobs et al., 2011). It was stated that the function of the CDC is to find “ground zero,” or the original source of the disease. In order to do this, an investigation of the disease was undertaken. The CDC worked in two divisions. One division worked on locating the outbreaks and containing them, and the second division looked at the virus itself to discover how it functioned and develop a vaccine (Jacobs et al., 2011). CDC representatives working to control the outbreaks first looked at how the disease was transmitted. In the event of an epidemic threat, this is a key step in stopping the spread of a disease (CDC, 2013). The characters talked about “foamites”, which are microbes transmitted through contact with a surface containing the microbes, and “respiratory droplets”, which are inhaled from the breath of a person with the disease (Black, 2008). These are actual facts on how real diseases are transmitted to people and spread (Black, 2008). Next, they calculated the value, which is a statistical value that predicts how many people are likely to be infected by a single infected person (Reluga, Medlock, & Galvani, 2009). This is a real epidemiological