Transmission of the Pathogen in the Film Contagion

Chain of Infection

Clip 1: Clip Location (minutes:seconds) 0:41 - 4:24

In the first clip of the movie Contagion, it appears that the pathogen is spreading through direct contact. Contamination may be airborne, spread by the woman coughing at the bar in the airport, or transmission may be through exposure of another vector, such as sexual intercourse (the woman at the bar, we learn, had sex with a partner earlier). Additionally, the woman is touching nuts and passes her credit card to the bartender for payment. Both of these objects could be fomites for carrying the pathogen. Then there is the person in Hong Kong who is shown touching handles and railings (2:18), and he appears to be a vector for the pathogen, as he is shown wobbling and being unsteady on his feet (2:24). He interacts with family and complains of fever (2:32), and it is clear that he may be acting as a reservoir of the pathogen, which is likely reproducing in him as it is in the woman. In London, similar scenes continue, with a woman at work who does not appear healthy; she sets down a folder (fomite) onto a table where the pathogen may be transmitted from one vector to another, facilitating contamination throughout the room (2:55). She is then seen dead moments later in a bathroom in a hotel, and no one in the room with her is wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) and nothing appears to be under quarantine to stop the transmission of the pathogen—the problem being of course that no one realizes what the problem is: the dead woman appears to have overdosed on pills to the untrained eye, so the people are not being careful.

To stop the spread of infection, we are meant to believe that PPE, contact tracing and quarantining could be helpful—but at this stage no one even knows what is happening. The movie is setting up the idea that a killer pathogen has spread around the world and no one knows about it.

Clip 3: Clip Location 6:41 - 7:20

In this clip, the dad is picking up his sick son from school after seeing that his wife is also sick at home. Exposure is happening at the school; the son is seen coughing, suggesting the pathogen is transmitted through the air. There is more touching of handles, no PPE use, and no consideration for fomite contamination, or transmission through direct contact. Everyone acts like it is just a normal cough or cold, which is actually normal. So there is no way to stop the spread of the disease at this point in realistic terms. This is a movie like a Hitchcock fantasy about killer birds, except here it is the killer pathogen. In reality, if a pathogen like this existed, people would have to live in plastic bubbles to prevent transmission. It is simply unrealistic. One could argue that PPE could be used, as Reddy et al. (2019) say it is effective in preventing pathogenesis. However, Tian et al. (2020) argue that full-body, highly-effective PPE would be needed for such a killer pathogen as depicted in the movie—so a simple face mask would not be effective, which again presses home the unreality of supposing that infection could be prevented given the scenario in the movie.

Clip 8: Clip Location 25:12 - 26:54

In this clip it appears that the pathogen is transmitted through touch, according to the CDC agent; but the agents are wearing PPE (mask and gloves) and they rush to meet Aaron at the bus stop and put a mask on him. It is unclear whether a mask would do anything to prevent transmission of an airborne pathogen, although Zhou et al. (2018) suggest that some masks would protect against large-size pathogens. The agents appear to have acted correctly in sending a team to intercept the bus. They are engaged in contact tracing. They are trying to prevent the spread through the action of isolating people who have come into contact with infected persons.

Clip 10: Clip Location 34:21 - 34:43

In this clip, the doctor sees people touching, sharing food, coughing, and essentially potentially spreading pathogens. These are all theoretically potentially ways that disease is being spread. What could be done in this instance to reduce the potential risk of transmission? The popular idea post-COVID is that masks and PPE will reduce the risk of transmission. Also promoted is the idea that people should limit their time indoors where they are at risk of being around other infected people. The movie plays up this idea by showing a worried expression on the doctor’s face. All of these people coughing and touching and sharing food and acting like human beings are going to spread the pathogen that is killing everyone: that is the look of concern on his face. The entire place would have to turn into totalitarian, authoritarian China in order to implement lockdowns and mandatory PPE-wearing to possibly reduce the risk of transmission if one is going to take this movie seriously along with the claims of new mask science. But it is difficult to tell what evidence is most accurate since only certain narratives are allowed in the public discourse.

Clip 13: Clip Location 40:37 - 41:17

In this clip, a young man comes to pay respects at the house of the man whose wife and son have gotten sick. The man refuses to let his daughter open the door. He also tells the young man to take back the flowers. The man believes the pathogen could be on the flowers, which might be a vector, and that the young man might be a reservoir. Yet he touched his wife, and his son, and he does not appear to be a reservoir of the pathogen.

The man is clearly self-isolating and acting on quarantine principles with respect to his own house, and so this could be said to be a good way to prevent the spread of the pathogen. If PPE worked, I suppose he could invite the young man in after ensuring that everyone donned their PPE—or perhaps, better, they could visit with one another outside, six feet apart, wearing PPE.

Clip 14: Clip Location 42:49 - 44:04

In this clip we see the doctor engaging in contact tracing after she comes down with a cough because she has been running herself ragged trying to stop the spread of the pathogen, not getting any sleep and not eating right. So it is not surprising that her body is forcing her to slow it down so it can detoxify, as Dr. Tom Cowan and Dr. Stefan Lanka would say is happening, since they discount germ theory completely. However, in accordance with germ theory and the theme of the movie, it is possible that the doctor has contracted the virus and is now a reservoir, so she is doing the only responsible thing possible, which is trying to get the names and numbers of everyone who might have come into contact with her so she can warn them to self-isolate and quarantine. It is no wonder the whole world went into lockdown mode in response to COVID after seeing this movie.

Clip 21: Clip Location 31:37 - 32:34

In this clip we see the Hong Kong attendants in the airport wearing their cloth masks, which probably offer minimal to no protection against a pathogenic virus (Zhou et al., 2018). However, other doctors are shown donning more high-end PPE, which is meant to stop the spread. In 131:37-132:34, we see another scene, though, in which the two military men do not shake hands so as not to “set a bad example,” and we saw this after COVID—no shaking hands—because the pathogen could then be transmitted through touch; although the men are talking together and standing not six feet apart, so one has to wonder at the inconsistency of their precautions. Then the scene concludes with the handing out of the vaccine, which the movie indicates will protect everyone from the pathogen, similarly to the way Pfizer told us its vaccine would protect everyone from COVID.