Compare and Contrast Essay Example: Contagion Movie vs. COVID-19

As we watch the movie Contagion, there are often many similarities we see with our current pandemic COVID-19. Some similarities include the start of the sickness, we often see it begin with a small uncontrollable cough, which is the same with COVID 19, considering the fact that it is a respiratory disease. In the film, we see many characters cough, unable to control it. Another big similarity is the fever that we see the child, Clark has in the beginning of the movie. COVID-19 can also cause a fever. We can also hear his dad say that “we can beat this by morning”, which is common when having symptoms with COVID, many people think that it will be over by the next day and they come to find out that it is not. We can also see in the beginning of the movie, they were clueless with what was going on. For example, when Mitch's wife died, the doctors had no idea what would have caused it. This relates back to the beginning of COVID-19, when people had no idea what was going on or how serious this would be. They were unsure of which direction to take or rules to enforce because the disease was so abrupt and uncommon. Another major similarity we see between the film, Contagion and our current COVID-19 pandemic is how devastating it is all over the world. In the film, we see several countries going through the same thing, which is something we are witnessing ourselves. The film also pushes the idea of quarantine and staying away from others, this is something we’ve all witnessed with COVID-19. Another major similarity is the misinformation that is spread by bloggers, this is very common with our current pandemic, we have many people spreading false information which can cause people to panic or be reluctant to the virus.

The film also has major differences as well. One difference seen between the two is the frothing of the mouth that happens at the end of the person's infected life. We do not see that symptom with our current COVID-19 pandemic. Another difference is the immunity some people may have naturally, for example the main character Mitch, was able to not get it at all even being very close to the infected people. With COVID-19 it is very rare to not get the virus when you are close to someone that is already infected, especially with no PPE. 

The film’s goal is to essentially let the public know how quickly life could change and what would happen without the proper preparation. The director's plan was not to scare people away from travel but more so to bring awareness that something like this is very likely and we should be prepared, with a focused mind as opposed to a panic mind. The film was very good, but I do not think it did a good job with getting its core meaning across to the public. The reason is not because of the film itself, but the audience. The audience may have looked at the film as just another movie, and the audience did not fully grasp the importance of the film’s meaning. If we look at the current pandemic, mainly in the start of it all, many people did exactly what the general public did in the film. We were supposed to tackle this in a different manner, a more calm manner. But, we can see that the general public panicked. Instead of seeing people rob grocery stores, we saw people buy 10 packs of toilet paper rolls and 10 packs of hand sanitizers. That was essentially the opposite of what the filmmakers wanted us to do. One primary conflict in the movie was the unawareness of the virus, if they had known about it quickly, they may have been able to save more people. Another conflict was the spread of information, they were told to not let the public know how bad it was, which did more bad than good. Lastly, the main conflict was the vaccine supply, we saw that only people that were in the frontline got a hold of the vaccine before anyone else, which created a dilemma to the rest of the public. These conflicts contribute to the movie’s goal because it emphasizes all three issues that could arise with a pandemic. For example, how important it is to prepare for outbreaks, although we cannot predict when we will have one, but being more prepared could help save many lives. Another example is how important it is to not spread misinformation, especially on the internet. This can lead to more chaos that is not needed in the first place. We have seen this first hand with COVID-19, there are people who do not believe in the virus and they believe that it is all made up and also do not believe in the vaccine. This causes a divide between people in our society. We have people who are staying away from the vaccinated as well as the vaccinated staying away from the unvaccinated. We have also seen people take it to the extreme by walking around with no masks because they do not see the importance of it, simply because of misinformation on the internet.

Some essential functions of public health that the CDC performed in the film was monitoring health. The CDC in the film made sure to touch base with several places that may have begun the virus in the film. We see Dr. Erin interview people that come in contact with someone who is infected and tries to see where the last place they were located. They were able to recognize the health problems in the community and actively work on top of it. This was one that they did well in the film. Another essential function that was implemented was Inform, Educate, and Empower. The film quickly told the public that they would need to quarantine, they shut down the borders in the film which forced people to stay home. They also advised that people should wear masks and gloves in order to protect themselves. They did not do the best on this one because they left out a lot of information to the public, mainly because they did not know everything themselves but they were not fully truthful. They also did not do the best with the empowerment because people still felt like they did not have the full information and they also felt like they had no direction. The film also mobilizes community partnerships, we saw in the film that schools were shut down and parents were told to keep their kids at home if they are sick. They were able to execute that well in the film. One essential function that was not done well was link to/provide care. This was the most difficult to do because they did not know everything about the viruses and it was difficult to provide health care services to the sick because no health care provider wanted to get sick themselves. This is why we heard Dr. Ellis Cheever tells his daughter that nurses are not doing their jobs because of the fear of getting sick. Another essential function that was not done well with the CDC, is the assured competent workforce, although we did not get a sense of everyone who worked in the CDC, we do get a glimpse of a good amount. While Dr, Ellis Cheever and Dr. Erin Mears seem to have very good competence, some people that we see them work with often lack the important competence needed when dealing with things like this. 

One ethical issue that the movie raises is the vaccine supply, the vaccine supply is limited to people that work in the front end, in this film it is people who work closely in the government, including the CDC. This is a huge ethical issue because it puts the government in the position of choosing who lives and who does not. It also brings in the idea of how unfair it is to those who are less fortunate and would be the last ones to receive the vaccine. This sort of parallels our current pandemic because we saw that essential workers were given access to the vaccine first and then made open to the rest of the public. 

Overall the film was very good. It almost accurately shows the effects of a pandemic outbreak. The only thing is the film is more dramatic, for entertainment purposes, but if we really study the film we can see that we are almost mirroring it. It is very interesting to see how a film can capture something solely based on imagination and for it to unfold right in front of our eyes with our current pandemic. More films like this should be made, maybe the next one will fully prepare us.