The disaster in Contagion begins instantly as audiences are introduced to the index patient in the first minute of the film. Although no one knows it yet, Gwyneth Paltrow’s character Beth Emhoff exhibits the symptoms of the virus in the opening scene. As she sits in the airport and talks on the phone, she already looks pale and sweaty. When asked if she is okay, she blames her coughing on jetlag. In a montage that spans two days, audiences are introduced to people in Hong Kong, England, Minnesota, and Japan exhibiting the same symptoms and dying from them. These are cities that everyone is familiar with so the setting in which the disaster takes place is not one that is extravagant or fictional: “they are realistic, contemporary and happen …show more content…
Virologist and cancer biologist Patrick Lee was the first person to use a virus (reovirus) as a potential treatment for cancer. After watching the movie, Dr. Lee stated that the likeliness of the reovirus running “amuck” is improbable: “’I thought the movie was very entertaining but the scenario it presents is highly unlikely, almost impossible’” (Dalhousie University, 2008). In Contagion, the narrative is something that viewers have experienced, but on a much larger scale. It also takes viewers through the disaster from start to end so one is able to see the full blown effect for themselves. I Am Legend skips over the symptoms of the vaccine and how it gradually affected the world. It mainly depicts how to survive and come back from a disaster of this kind. The movie ends with a “utopian” society: “[it is] the end of one plane of existence (the terrestrial) and reemergence of a small group of chose in heavenly realm” (Cornell, Slide 16). The imagery of mass death, science labs, finding a cure, etc. are all the same in both these films, but the order in which they are shown affects the meaning greatly. I Am Legend shows audiences that disaster is not something they should fear, but rather welcome as it provides a do-over for a better society than the one that existed. Contagion on the other hand puts the fear in people to make them understand that a pandemic can be isolated, but once it begins to spread it can easily become
He states, “A crowd in panic has no sense or conscience” (Esposito 71). This communicates the sheer horror and hopelessness of the trapped victims. The experiences of the witnesses compounds this image, making the book vivid and persuading the audience to consider the far-reaching nature of the tragedy. How prepared are we for disasters in the contemporary world? I could only shudder in fear as I visualized Esposito’s fear of ill-informed crowds. Esposito persuades me to embrace the concept of educating the masses to remain calm under storm to reduce the number of
In the book Heat Wave A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago, by Eric Klinenberg expose how a number of social, political, and economical factors created one of the largest and most traumatic events in recent history. The Chicago heat wave in 1995 was a disaster, which led to over 700 heat-related deaths in Chicago over a five days period creating. Most of the victims of the heat wave were poor elderly residents of the city, who didn’t have any relative or were neglected by the public officials and was unable to purchase air-conditioning units for their home. Most of the elderly isolated themselves and refused to open windows or sleep outside in fear of crime. Alot of lives were loss or in destress because of isolation, poverty and media who played a major role by portraying the countless deaths on the natural disaster and highlighting of negative activities especially in the urban area
The viruses are spread in many different ways in the novel, but all are due to human mistakes. One of the most common forms of errors found in the medical field is the recycling of soiled equipment. The repeated use of dirty medical equipment is found commonly in the poor regions of the world where resources are limited and fundings are bound. This is an example of the errors the human race performs that lead to disaster.
This virus searches for a new vulnerable host in order to survive and carry the disease to the next victim. The critical aspect around the spread of a virus is how drastically the reproduction process occurs. Without being controlled, the contamination throughout any species causes the spread to take place in a toxic way, “On day one, there were two people. And then, four, and then, sixteen. In three months, it’s a billion.
The outburst spread of diseases in a population causes people to panic and become hopeless. The main reason diseases spread is due to unsanitary living styles. Also when a disease first begins, it is really hard to find a cure right away. A very deadly, infectious disease known as Typhus spread during the Holocaust. Typhus is caused by rickettsia and is spread by lice and flees.
Nowadays, technology makes easier for scientists to discover new viruses and find cures for them. One these viruses, “bird flu” known as H5N1 recreated by the Dutch scientist Ron Fouchier. Even though he had no ill intention to create such strain, it has a potential to wipe most humanity off from the face of the world as well as saving the humanity from much worse viruses. The discovery of this virus caused a big controversy in the scientific world. Some scientists think that publication of this virus indeed benefits society while some say that not publishing this might prevent society from horrible incidents.
The story begins with the tale of a French man, Charles Monet, who lived on a plantation in western Kenya. He enjoyed the outdoors, so for the New Year’s he planned a camping trip with one of his women friends. They drove to Mount Elgon and spent the night in a large cave called Kitum Cave. After his trip to Mount Elgon, he felt completely normal and was able to return to his job. Then seven days later, Monet had massive headaches that would not seem to go away. These headaches caused back aches and aspirin failed to work. Little did Charles Monet know that these were the first symptoms of the deadly virus within him. Three days after the headaches, the fevers came along with nausea and vomiting. Charles Monet’s personality began to transform and he became a completely different but frightening person. Doctor’s sent him to a large hospital in Nairobi to treat his worsening sickness. He travelled alone and throughout the flight, was vomiting blood mixed with a black liquid. After his long flight, he waited in the waiting room at Nairobi hospital, barely being able to talk to anyone. Finally Charles Monet lost all control of his body and he began vomiting large amounts of blood along with intestinal lining. He became a human virus bomb.
In Graham Greene's "The Destructors," the setting is in London, in a town destroyed by bombs. Every morning, the gang meets at a hangout called car-park, which is the site of the last bombing. The bombing leaves the town destroyed, with only one beautiful thing left standing, Old Misery's house, which the gang will eventually destroy. Graham Greene's choice of setting significantly illustrates how people's surroundings greatly influence their actions and behaviors.
The novel goes through a couple of settings such as, Philip's struggle to keep his family alive, and the conflict between the nature of a nuclear bomb against the Los Angeles area. When the bomb hits he is playing around in a playroom shelter with his brother and his girlfriend. They go out to find out what had happened and found burning houses, their house only left with one wall, rubble on the ground, debris all over the place, and people running frantically for shelter. Philip's brother became sick after finding his mother and bringing her back down to the shelter, and found that his mother had been burnt severely and needed immediate medical attention. Philip struggles to keep his brother from getting even more sick than he was and to bring his mother to a hospital. Philip's family weren't the only people affected by the bomb. the entire surrounding area of Los Angeles was pounded by a devastating bomb. Churches, Hospitals, and streets were flooded with sick, dying, and even dead people. Hospitals that were built to only withstand 200 people now have thousands, and hospitals lack food, doctors, and water.
Knowing this, one would not believe that it has caused not one, not two, but three pandemics and is on its way to causing a fourth! The Spanish flu of 1918, the Asian flu of 1957, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968 each killed millions of people worldwide, causing mass terror. People were mad with fear, and for good reason, as friends, family, and neighbors dropped dead like flies. And yet, as soon as the deaths ceased, the forgetfulness set in. until very few knew about these pandemics.
The flu is an example of Contagious Diffusion, because it spreads regardless of social class, or political preference.
After the medical workers are summoned and start treating the infection they become unresponsive to patients because they do not wish to become infected themselves. This leads to the final phase and to the aftermath of the biological attack. The psychiatric phase is when the community is recovering from illness, panic, and grief causing the most vulnerability. “The invisibility of biological agents, the possibility that the agent can be spread by personal contact, the uncertainty of the extent of dangerousness of biological weapons” (Radosavljevic and Jakovlijevic 551) are reactions that are be based off of the distress of people. All of these phases lead to the force of what a biological attack could do to a community and a country by a simple pathogen being
The movie Outbreak is a wonderful portrayal of how the Chain of Infection works in an epidemic and pandemic outbreak of a disease. The shows how quickly the disease gained power and was responsible for sickness and death in a small community. Pathogens that invade the body have 5 requirements for a successful invasion on their host whether it is a human or animal. I will further review how the movie successfully reflects the reservoir/host, portal of exit, mode of transmission, portal of entry and susceptible host to provide the perfect Outbreak of the disease. The same model still used today in science.
(CDC, 2017) This movie shows people with little to no scientific knowledge how fragile society really is. One scene where the CDC employee arrives at a meeting room in a government building were the 1st US case of this disease started was talking with the government officials. She was trying to explain how serious this outbreak really could be from a scientific perspective. She makes a great attempt to explain this outbreak in the simplest of terms so that someone with no scientific knowledge could
The main idea of Jack London’s “Story of an Eyewitness” is about the destruction of San Francisco. The story takes place in San Francisco after 1906’s aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake and fire. It starts with Jack London’s description of the devastating destruction, flames, horror, and the terrible things that are happening in the city. As the fire grows, people soon realize it cannot be contained despite the work of the firefighters. Tens of thousands of refugees decide to flee and let the flames consume the rest of the city.