Contagion tracks the spread of a virus that appears to be
contracted just through contact. We
watch as the CDC, WHO, and other health organizations struggle to stop the
spread of the disease and provide the public with confidence. Meanwhile, society begins to unravel and
panic sets in across the world as people fight for their survival.
Coming from a more scientific background, I found the story
compelling and fairly accurate. Even
with multiple labs around the world trying to find the cure or a vaccine for a
virus will take months, if not years.
The one thing that I felt bothered by in the movie was the lack of
public involvement. While it seemed like
the government was concerned for the welfare of the people, it brought to light
how little they actually tell the people.
Additionally, it made me wonder about what goes on behind closed
doors. If an epidemic of this scale were
to occur, would certain people be given priority to treatment just because they
are related to a government or health official?
Also, what information would the government keep from the public and
would this information be withheld to keep a good public image or in hopes of
keeping the people calm? I hope that if
such an epidemic were to occur that our public health infrastructure would
respond just as quickly, but that the public were kept more informed.
In this movie, we watched the outbreak of a virus. An outbreak is when a disease occurs with
much higher frequency than would normally be expected. When an outbreak occurs, public health begins
an outbreak investigation. An outbreak
investigation involves many factors.
Some important factors include defining the characteristics of the
disease, mapping the spread of the disease, and develop and implement control
and prevention systems. Some control
methods include isolation and quarantining.
Isolation is the practice of taking a sick individual and taking them
away from the public. This keeps them
from spreading the disease further.
Quarantines can be used to keep healthy people away from those that have
contracted the disease, but also can be used to keep people that are suspected
of having the disease in a controlled environment.
There were at least three instances in the movie where I
thought that the government could have been more prepared. The first thing I found problematic was the
government’s lack of proper public communication. I feel the government should be better
prepared to deal with these situations and be more open with the public to
decrease widespread panic. The second
thing I noticed was the lack of food supply.
While I understand that the government may not have huge stocks of food
sitting around to give out, I hope that they would be prepared to have at least
enough to deal with widespread food shortages.
Finally, I know that staffing of hospitals can become an issue,
especially like in this movie where nurses went on strike. I hope that the government has plans set up
to counteract such a situation and make that proper healthcare is available to
all that need it in an epidemic.
Very thoughtful blog. I also wondered about certain people receiving priority treatment. I remember the H1N1 vaccines. The people who first received the vaccine (in Canada) were healthcare providers (including first-responders), poultry and swine workers and those who were at extreme risk: [regnant women, babies, people with chronic medical conditions, etc. However, I still wonder if government officials were given priority as well.
ReplyDeleteCBC News is our official national news, so I trust their info. If you're interested, here's the link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/2009/09/16/h1n1-vaccine.html
Kat
Sorry about the random spacing, I don't know how to fix that.
DeleteWren, I thought you posed some very intriguing questions in response to Contagion. People are always criticizing the government for what they feel is unfair treatment, whether it be certain privileges the government has that ordinary citizens do not or in situations like Contagion portrays, where certain people got priority over others because of government involvement. I wonder how much of this priority would really matter in a severe situation like a virus outbreak? It is interesting to question. I also agree with the public health officials lack of food resources problem. There should somehow be methods and procedures more efficient than what happened in the movie, because as we have seen, violence and panic can occur rapidly and get out of hand without necessary preparedness.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog this week! I totally agree with the things you mentioned that government could improve on. I also worry about the ways that food and resources will be distributed during times of a epidemic. The other issue that was very important was public awareness and this issue proves as crucial when the public is ultimately being affected. If we made the public aware, instead of causing widespread panic then the outcomes may have been different.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this blog – you did a really nice job with the summary of the movie. I agree with you that public communication seems somewhat lacking and public involvement even moreso. Your concern about the lack of communication and those in the know playing favorites is a very valid point, and one that in reality probably happens more than we would be comfortable knowing about.
ReplyDeleteYou did a nice job with the definitions you were asked to define. I would just say for quarantine is more for people who are not yet symptomatic but who were potentially exposed and might then become sick. Quarantines have to last for at least as long as the incubation period, including the time from supposed exposure, in order to clear people to go back into the general public safely.
All of your points about preparedness are great points – communication was definitely lacking, and/or non-uniform which is confusing to people in times of stress and can easily make people panic. The food supply question is interesting – I wonder if we do have the kind of capacity to deal with shortages in the US. We definitely have capacity to feed the country, but I don’t know if the supply and transportation would be able to keep up, especially if the farmers or those in the supply industry get sick. Your final point about healthcare is super important. Unfortunately there are times when healthcare workers call in sick due to fear that they’ll be exposed at work. Though the government can do many things to try to counteract this, ultimately people are going to do what they perceive they have to to protect themselves. Having financial support though is of course something that they can have ready in case of strikes.
Nice job on this blog!