September 21, 2011
contagion
I just wanted to post up a short reflection on Contagion, a new apocalyptic movie about a subject close to my heart. First of all, the movie isn't just about the biological vector that decimates the world's population but also the one of the social vector (social networking sites etc.) that spreads bad information. Second, the science of the movie isn't bad though greatly accelerated. Bad news is now an expectation has been developed of how such an event would be resolved. I did appreciate the attempt at getting the science right. However, like any good story, this movie needed villains and heroes. Though I didn't have any problems with the villains, I did have a problem with the movie portraying individual researchers and scientists as heroes. Just as the medical doctors were befuddled, in reality, researchers and scientists may work very hard to resolve the crisis but not be able to come quickly to a resolution. Part of the problem is that there isn't just one bureaucrat, two researchers, and two epidemiologists. We are talking about teams of people that number into the hundreds with each their way of thinking. People who care very much about protocols and plans. The ability to work together will be tested and may be the key to any true problem-solving.
Also, I'm of the mindset that the chances that researchers and scientists can resolve a world-wide pandemic even in this age is smaller than the ability of our immune system to resolve the pandemic on its own. And, keep in mind that in our current arsenal, there is only about 30 antivirals. So, our chances aren't that great.
Posted by azileretsis at September 21, 2011 01:21 PM
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