Pandemics in movies vs real-life (biological and social aspects of Contagion vs COVID)
Pandemic, the emergence of an otherwise forgotten word:
Pandemic, a word that has been used quite frequently since the past year and a half. It basically refers to an outbreak of a disease that affects millions of people around the globe. For a disease outbreak to be classified as a pandemic, it first must affect a large number of people across multiple countries. Covid –19, being the recent most pandemic, wreaked quite a lot of havoc on people’s life and this is really what pandemics are known for.
First identified in early 2020, Covid-19 (also known as ‘Corona Virus’) inflicted its wrath upon humanity. This virus has a debatable origin, some say that it was first found in the fish market of the famous Chinese city ‘Wuhan,’ while others say that this virus has originated in bats and has transferred over to humans through a process called zoonotic transmission, which in simpler terms is the transfer of animal germs/diseases over to humans. Whatever its origin may be, the fact that it paralyzed the entire world is a clear reminder that things so small that the naked eye can’t even see, can stop the functioning of the world.
How pandemics are shown in movies Vs How pandemics really are in real life (Covid-19):
The movie Contagion, released in 2011, depicted how a virus called ‘Nipah’ took several people’s lives. “Nipah (Nee-pa) viral disease is a zoonotic infection caused by Nipah virus (NiV), a paramyxovirus belonging to the genus Henipavirus of the family Paramyxoviridae. It is a biosafety level-4 pathogen, which is transmitted by specific types of fruit bats, mainly Pteropus spp” (Singh et al., 2019). As it was highly contagious, it spread like a wild a wildfire and went out of control in the blink of an eye. The most astonishing thing about the movie is the uncanny similarities between the ‘Nipah virus’ and the ‘Coronavirus,’ which it includes its high contagiousness and spread through fomites and air. In addition, the air travel restrictions closure of schools across the country, and other precautionary measures were strikingly close to what we saw during the covid time. It was almost as if the movie had already predicted the forthcoming of covid-19. Although movies usually tend to be quite far away from reality, but in the case of ‘Contagion,’ it was something absurdly similar to reality, especially after witnessing the coronavirus times.
Science behind Coronavirus and Nipah virus:
“Nipah virus is a bat-borne virus that causes severe respiratory illness and encephalitis. It has the potential to cause widespread disease and death. It can be spread to humans from infected animals, infected food, or other infected persons, and has an estimated case fatality rate of 40 to 75 percent.” If we compare this particular virus with Covid-19, we would clearly be able to see that it is a lot deadlier than convid-19. Covid-19 on the other hand, is much more civilized than Nipah virus, as it has a much lower fatality rate. Some of the similarities between Covid-19 and Nipah virus is that both are bat-borne, both can spread through air, and both are highly contagious.
Nipah Virus Structure:
Social and Biological aspects of Nipah and Coronavirus:
Released back in 2011, when there was no coronavirus around, Contagion showed the spread of a lethal virus that was taking people’s lives. Due to its highly contagious nature, it was spreading rapidly. Unfortunately, it came into notice a little late for the government to act accordingly and timely. This delay caused the virus vectors (people carrying the virus), to spread around the country by taking flights to different cities. Now, the virus was spread out in multiple cities and was infecting even more people than before. Keeping all of these interesting points about the movie, we can surely relate it to the coronavirus times. Covid-19, acted in a discomfortingly analogous manner to the Nipah virus showed in the movie Contagion. An example, of which can be seen in the way that it started to spread, its mortality rate, and the precautions taken by the government against it, which includes suspension of commercial flights, wearing surgical masks etc. Both the Nipah virus and coronavirus created distress amongst people, travel restriction, food shortage, lockdowns, and other utility item shortage all became a reason for anguish in people. People were extremely depressed during the covid times, as there wasn’t any way for them to get entertained, as all of the theme parks and other places of amusement were closed.
Final Verdict:
Keeping in view the biological and social aspects of the movie Contagion and Covid-19, it can surely be said that the things shown in this particular movie can and have a replicated themselves a little bit into real life, the biggest example of which is coronavirus. The strikingly similarity between the virus, people’s reaction, and the government's take shows that up to what extent a movie can predict a phenomenon and translate into real life.
References: (Quotations)
1- Singh, R. K., Dhama, K., Chakraborty, S., Tiwari, R., Natesan, S., Khandia, R., Munjal, A., Vora, K. S., Latheef, S. K., Karthik, K., Singh Malik, Y., Singh, R., Chaicumpa, W., & Mourya, D. T. (2019). Nipah virus: Epidemiology, pathology, immunobiology and advances in diagnosis, vaccine designing and Control Strategies – A Comprehensive Review. Veterinary Quarterly, 39(1), 26–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/01652176.2019.1580827
2- Nipah virus inspired "contagion." we're testing a vaccine. PATH. (n.d.). Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.path.org/articles/nipah-virus-film-contagion-vaccine/.
References: (Images)
1- https://www.cetim.ch/covid-19-pandemic-and-human-rights-2/
2- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contagion_(2011_film)#/media/File:Contagion_Poster.jpg
3- https://www.gavi.org/vaccineswork/next-pandemic/nipah-virus
4- https://www.fda.gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/food-safety-and-coronavirusdisease-2019-covid-1
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