User login
The chilling final scene of the 2011 movie "Contagion" – which showed the birth of a deadly, worldwide pandemic when a presumably virus-laced morsel of food dropped from the claws of a jungle bat to a piglet that soon graced a Hong Kong restaurant table – won accolades for authenticity and accuracy at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance in Vienna last month.
In fact, one of the meeting’s speakers, Dr. Mark Smolinski of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, revealed that he was a script consultant for the movie, and that an upfront goal of the film’s producers was to raise public awareness of how emerging infections can occur and the impact they can have.
"It’s an opportunity to use film to bring complicated issues to the general public," said Dr. Smolinski, director of global health for the fund in San Francisco.
A sister company of the Skoll Global Threats Fund is Participant Media, one of the producers of "Contagion." Participant usually releases documentary films, but in this case the "idea was to use a mainstream movie" to educate the public about pandemics and their causes, Dr. Smolinski said. "It emphasized the realities we have today, and a lot of the dialogue we have about One Health," the new paradigm that says animal health and the environment play key roles in determining human health.
"Contagion" began winning fans in the infectious diseases community when it opened 18 months ago. In a blog post, Dr. Larry Madoff, head epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Health, said that in "Contagion," "the science is uncannily true, with rare exceptions. An epidemic like the one described in the film will almost certainly occur, though we can’t predict the details. The notion that an agent like Nipah virus, a pathogen shared by bats, pigs, and humans, and presumably the model for the virus in the movie, will break out of its niche and cause widespread disease is very believable." A not so-unlikely coincidence is that Dr. Madoff also was chairman of the program committee for the meeting last month on new infections where Dr. Smolinski spoke.
"We know that [the movie] has been used a lot for teaching students in various disciplines," Dr. Smolinski added. The movie’s famous last scene depicting the pandemic’s trigger portrays "One Health in one minute," he said.
–Mitchel Zoler
On Twitter @mitchelzoler
The chilling final scene of the 2011 movie "Contagion" – which showed the birth of a deadly, worldwide pandemic when a presumably virus-laced morsel of food dropped from the claws of a jungle bat to a piglet that soon graced a Hong Kong restaurant table – won accolades for authenticity and accuracy at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance in Vienna last month.
In fact, one of the meeting’s speakers, Dr. Mark Smolinski of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, revealed that he was a script consultant for the movie, and that an upfront goal of the film’s producers was to raise public awareness of how emerging infections can occur and the impact they can have.
"It’s an opportunity to use film to bring complicated issues to the general public," said Dr. Smolinski, director of global health for the fund in San Francisco.
A sister company of the Skoll Global Threats Fund is Participant Media, one of the producers of "Contagion." Participant usually releases documentary films, but in this case the "idea was to use a mainstream movie" to educate the public about pandemics and their causes, Dr. Smolinski said. "It emphasized the realities we have today, and a lot of the dialogue we have about One Health," the new paradigm that says animal health and the environment play key roles in determining human health.
"Contagion" began winning fans in the infectious diseases community when it opened 18 months ago. In a blog post, Dr. Larry Madoff, head epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Health, said that in "Contagion," "the science is uncannily true, with rare exceptions. An epidemic like the one described in the film will almost certainly occur, though we can’t predict the details. The notion that an agent like Nipah virus, a pathogen shared by bats, pigs, and humans, and presumably the model for the virus in the movie, will break out of its niche and cause widespread disease is very believable." A not so-unlikely coincidence is that Dr. Madoff also was chairman of the program committee for the meeting last month on new infections where Dr. Smolinski spoke.
"We know that [the movie] has been used a lot for teaching students in various disciplines," Dr. Smolinski added. The movie’s famous last scene depicting the pandemic’s trigger portrays "One Health in one minute," he said.
–Mitchel Zoler
On Twitter @mitchelzoler
The chilling final scene of the 2011 movie "Contagion" – which showed the birth of a deadly, worldwide pandemic when a presumably virus-laced morsel of food dropped from the claws of a jungle bat to a piglet that soon graced a Hong Kong restaurant table – won accolades for authenticity and accuracy at the International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance in Vienna last month.
In fact, one of the meeting’s speakers, Dr. Mark Smolinski of the Skoll Global Threats Fund, revealed that he was a script consultant for the movie, and that an upfront goal of the film’s producers was to raise public awareness of how emerging infections can occur and the impact they can have.
"It’s an opportunity to use film to bring complicated issues to the general public," said Dr. Smolinski, director of global health for the fund in San Francisco.
A sister company of the Skoll Global Threats Fund is Participant Media, one of the producers of "Contagion." Participant usually releases documentary films, but in this case the "idea was to use a mainstream movie" to educate the public about pandemics and their causes, Dr. Smolinski said. "It emphasized the realities we have today, and a lot of the dialogue we have about One Health," the new paradigm that says animal health and the environment play key roles in determining human health.
"Contagion" began winning fans in the infectious diseases community when it opened 18 months ago. In a blog post, Dr. Larry Madoff, head epidemiologist for the Massachusetts Department of Health, said that in "Contagion," "the science is uncannily true, with rare exceptions. An epidemic like the one described in the film will almost certainly occur, though we can’t predict the details. The notion that an agent like Nipah virus, a pathogen shared by bats, pigs, and humans, and presumably the model for the virus in the movie, will break out of its niche and cause widespread disease is very believable." A not so-unlikely coincidence is that Dr. Madoff also was chairman of the program committee for the meeting last month on new infections where Dr. Smolinski spoke.
"We know that [the movie] has been used a lot for teaching students in various disciplines," Dr. Smolinski added. The movie’s famous last scene depicting the pandemic’s trigger portrays "One Health in one minute," he said.
–Mitchel Zoler
On Twitter @mitchelzoler