Sept. 19--Spoiler alert for film fans: This article includes plot details about "Contagion."
"Contagion," the pandemic thriller now in movie theaters, has won praise from national health officials for its portrayal of an unknown virus that kills millions of people as it sweeps the world in a few weeks.
Medical experts advised director Steven Soderbergh ("Ocean's Eleven" and "Traffic") and several of the stars (including Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne) to keep the story close to actual science.
To test the reviews, I invited Whatcom County Health Department leaders to watch the movie with me and share their thoughts afterward.
In the fast-paced movie, a virus transmitted from a bat to a pig and then to humans causes people to sicken within a few days, just long enough for them to easily spread the deadly disease to others by simple contact before collapsing, going into seizures and dying.
You know it's serious when "patient zero" -- the first person to become sick and die early in the story -- is Paltrow, a star who usually carries a movie to its conclusion.
The not-quite-real movie virus was inspired by an actual virus that killed more than 100 pig farmers in Malaysia in the 1990s and killed people in Bangladesh who ate fruit tainted by bats.
"I liked the movie," said German Gonzalez, who manages the communicable disease and epidemiology programs at the county Health Department. "Biologically, it seemed plausible."
Marcus Deyerin, an emergency response specialist with the department, had several qualms about the movie. Example: Many people, and not just health-care workers, are shown wearing protective masks weeks and months after the virus surfaces. Deyerin questioned whether masks and other critical supplies would remain so available, given that factories, suppliers and stores would be disrupted or closed.
And the movie didn't address likely shortages of power, clean water and other essentials as workers sicken or stay home to avoid the plague. While the movie does portray lootings, shootings and other signs of social collapse, it mainly focuses on researchers' effort to identify the virus and develop a vaccine.
"The social aspects were sugarcoated," Deyerin said.
Greg Stern, Whatcom County health officer, was troubled by breaches of protocol in the movie. For example, a researcher played by Elliott Gould studies the virus in a lower-security lab, and human testing of the vaccine is given short shrift.
But Stern said the movie did a good job showing dilemmas that health officials face in a crisis, and describing how experts can nail down the incubation period, transmission, and kill rate of a mystery organism.
"You can describe the behavior even before you know what it is," Stern said.
Federal, state and local governments develop plans for responding to disasters, but the nature of the disaster makes a big difference. An earthquake, say, or a flood can wreak havoc, but the damage is localized, meaning help is available elsewhere. But in a pandemic, everyone everywhere is dealing with the problem, which can drag on for months.
"It's like a slow-moving train wreck," Deyerin said. "It grinds on you."
In Whatcom County, a community task force developed a plan five years ago for responding to pandemic influenza. More local planning was done for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canada.
To its credit, "Contagion" makes clear that research, planning and public investment are essential to cope with medical disasters, something that candidates and voters should keep in mind in these days of budget slashing and science bashing.
But Deyerin fears that the movie's ending -- a vaccine is created and distributed in short order -- could lead to public anger in a real crisis.
"People are going to think, 'Why can't they come up with a vaccine in 100 days?" he said.
Copyright 2011 THE BELLINGHAM HERALD. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Reach DEAN KAHN atdean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2291.
___
(c)2011 The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.)
Visit The Bellingham Herald (Bellingham, Wash.) at www.bellinghamherald.com
Distributed by MCT Information Services