Contagion: A Medically Accurate Portrayal of Pandemics

Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film, Contagion, has been lauded by medical professionals as being one of the most medically accurate depictions of medical response to a widespread pandemic event. The star studded film follows the course of a global epidemic of the ill-understood MEV1 virus and the pursuance of a cure by varied international medical professionals. Through unrelenting commitment to accuracy and highlighting of the often overlooked work of epidemiologists, virologists and researchers, Soderbergh shed light on an aspect of society which is not the most widely accessible to many. Through a realist visual style and hyperlinked narratives, Soderbergh emphasised the immediacy of the topics of pandemic and societal disorder, simultaneously

A major element of the film is the general breakdown of social order resulting from the uncertainty linked to the MEV1 virus, whether it be through riots at food-lines or deadly home invasions. The medical professional protagonists eventually dealt with the social disorder and develop a cure, stemming the rampage of MEV1 and begin to return society to normalcy, however the inclusion of an anthropologist, a “missing” protagonist in the film, may have served to better manage the social disarray which was frequently an issue. In better understanding individual motivations and anticipating the manner in which behaviour would be impacted by such stresses and adverse conditions as related to an epidemic, such as in the manner which a medical/crisis anthropologist would be able to, the social response to the epidemic would have most definitely been better organised and more proactive. An anthropologist would have been able to address and combat both the “parallel epidemic of fear and panic” perpetuated by the conspiracy theorist blogger character portrayed by Jude Law and the lawless, violent nature of action which occurred in the

Medical professionals are thought to have omniscient knowledge of all medicinal matters; this is evidenced in many scenes throughout the film such as Matt Damon’s character angrily accosting Beth’s doctor after he explains that he doesn’t know how she died, the local officials of Minnesota treating Kate Winslet’s character with disdain when she says that she doesn’t know exactly what the disease is and Jude Law’s entire character arc of sewing conspiratorial disarray, impressing that the US government was keeping information regarding of the causes of MEV1 private. It seemed inconceivable that medical professionals would not have all the answers, as they are generally viewed by laymen as above confusion, beyond reproach or question. Medicine is a form of magic, in anthropological terms, and doctors are magicians - doing what others cannot and possessing an incomparable degree of trust and credibility not only in pop culture, but in real life interactions as