Source: Google

We often watch movies that are mirrors of our daily lives, similarly Hollywood movie released in 2011, Contagion has been topping the most-watched charts recently. People are turning towards it to learn about the novel CoronaVirus (COVID-19), but how much can we actually learn about the ongoing virus from Hollywood movies based on pandemics?

The movie follows a group of characters who are fending for themselves after a deadly virus takes over the world.

Watch Contagion’s Trailer Below:


It sure gives off similar vibes to the current pandemic going on in the world.

Similarities Between Movie Contagion and COVID-19

1. Place where the Virus Began

The movie shows, Gwyneth Paltrow (patient zero) she gets infected after taking a work trip to Hong Kong.As we all know the COVID-19 started from China and has spread across the world though travel. This was one similarity people have noticed in the movie to the recent scenario where the virus seems to originate from a similar region.

2. Similar Preventative Measures Shown

A scene in the movie that has caught the eye of many is the conversation between Kate Winslet and her helper. Winslet plays a CDC inspection officer, her helper is complaining about his wife where he says, “My wife makes me take off my clothes in the garage, she then leaves out a bucket of warm water and soap, she then douses everything in hand sanitiser. I mean, she’s overreacting right?”

Winslet’s answer is what shocks us,

“Not really, and stop touching your face.”

Isn’t this what every health guideline you’ve come across since the Coronavirus began saying the same thing? “Wash your hands with soap and water, use hand sanitisers and don’t touch your face!” Wow, we sure are shocked!

3. Conspiracy Theories Surround the Virus

The blogger played by Jude Law in the movie spreads fake news about the virus in the movie saying it was manufactured by drug companies. Similarly, there have been a number of controversies suggesting that the novel coronavirus has been engineered by Chinese scientists at a secret Wuhan Lab for Biological warfare. This theory has been deemed untrue by researchers and scientists working around the clock on COVID-19.

Source: Warner Bros

4. The Virus Spreads Across the Globe

The movie’s opening scenes show a man in Hong Kong, China is the first to die from the illness but a man in Tokyo and a woman in London die too. Although Coronavirus did not spread across borders within a day, it is now present all around the world.

5. How people get infected with the Virus

In the movie the MEV-1 virus as they had named it was spread through close contact but also through touching the same surface. As per the ongoing situation we know that the COVID-19 spreads via droplets passed when infected people cough or sneeze. However the virus does not survive on the surface as shown in the movie.
Source: Warner Bros

6. How the Virus Started

The movie’s ending scene is revealed to be “day one” of the MEV-1 outbreak. It shows a logging company disturbing a bat, which flies out of the forest and into a pig farm, carrying a piece of banana. The bat drops the fruit (presumably infected with the virus), and a piglet eats it. The pig is later sold to a market vendor, who then sells the butchered swine to a casino restaurant in Hong Kong. The chef prepares the pork before shaking hands with Gwyneth, infecting her and kick-starting the pandemic.

Similarly COVID-19’s genetic studies have all but confirmed that the coronavirus originated in bats.

Experts aren’t sure which animal species served as the virus’ intermediary between bats and people, but pigs, civets, and pangolins are the most likely.

These were some of the similarities we came across with Contagion keeping in mind the current situation regarding the coronavirus.

Have you noticed any other similarities? Let us know in the comments below.

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