Flaws of Contagion

In 2011, the blockbuster, Contagion, was released, featuring several prominent actors. In summary, the movie is the story of a father who loses his wife and son to a completely brand new virus. This new virus, dubbed MEV-1, originated from a bat in Hong Kong. The bat bit a fruit then dropped it into a pigpen infecting the pig that consumed the fruit with the bat’s virus. While pig was prepped to be cooked, the chef touched the pig’s mouth, getting virus on his hand and shakes the hands of woman, Beth, making her patient zero for MEV-1. The disease then spread to others who come in contact with Beth or Beth’s belongings. After the CDC realized the existence of this virus, they promptly started researching it. After several days of research, scientists were able to determine that the virus was “15 to 19 kilobases in length and containing six to ten genes, typical of a paramyxovirus” containing genes from bats and pigs, which attach to receptors found on cells in the respiratory and the central nervous system. The virus is seemingly able to be contracted through the respiratory tract, but kills the host by making its way to the brain and causing encephalitis. The vaccine for the virus was developed by first growing the virus in fetal bat cells in culture, propagating and isolating, and finally inoculating rhesus monkeys with attenuated and dead forms of the virus. Out of desperation for working vaccine, after observing one monkey surviving during the vaccination trials, one of the researchers injected herself with the tested vaccine given to the surviving chimp. By doing so, she skipped the entire clinical trials portion of developing vaccines and had the vaccine fastracked to be mass-produced.

While this movie was more scientifically accurate then most other movies, there are still several aspects of the movie that seem incorrect. One aspect of the movie that stood out to me as incorrect was what the virus was considered to be. According to one of the