With the coronavirus taking over the news cycle, with the pandemic affecting nearly every walk of life around the world, it’s clear that people turn to media to help figure out what to do or whether or not to panic. And that would likely explain why there’s been a sudden burst of interest in Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 film, “Contagion.” And according to the film’s writer, Scott Z. Burns, there’s information in the film worth revisiting in relation to COVID-19, but it’s the leadership of the country that needs to do better to figure out how to fix this situation.
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Speaking to Slate, Burns was asked a variety of questions about the current spread of coronavirus and how he was able to predict so much of the panic in the film “Contagion.” Burns doesn’t think he’s some sort of Nostradamus, but instead, he listened to smart, qualified scientists in preparation for writing the film. And he believes those are the exact people that President Donald Trump and government officials around the world should be listening to.
Burns explained, “That being said, it has been very strange to me, whether on social media or in conversations with friends, that people will say to me, ‘This is uncanny how similar it is.’ And I don’t find it to be that surprising because the scientists I spoke to, and there were a lot of them, all said that this was a matter of when not if. So, I guess my feeling as someone who believes in science is that when scientists tell us those things we would do well to listen.”
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And with Trump’s response to the pandemic being highly criticized by the scientific community for his lack of urgency, Burns feels that the US government has let down the people by relying on people who aren’t experts to help dictate policies.
“It is incredible to me that we are not letting the really amazing public health people in this country lead the response—that we are finding out that we don’t have enough test kits and have for some reason disbanded our pandemic-preparedness teams,” the writer said. “When I was at the CDC researching the movie in 2009 and 2010, those people were extraordinary. It was no different than the feeling you might get if you went to a firehouse and saw how committed those first responders are to keeping people safe. Slashing the budgets of those things is something I would have never contemplated as a screenwriter.”
He continued, “When people tell me that the movie seems to be coming true, I say to them that I never contemplated that we would have leadership in this country that would gut our defense. This administration and this Republican Party talk about protecting people with a wall, and we can’t even make test kits.”
Even though it’s clear that Burns isn’t happy with the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been up until now, he’s hopeful that it will all work out in the end. Why? Well, he believes in those same people he trusted a decade ago when he was doing his research.
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“This will sound really naïve and silly, but I really do believe this,” Burns said. “I have incredible confidence in the scientists that I know, and I have unbelievable faith in American ingenuity. Knowing that there are people in every sector right now—whether it is microbiology or tech or whatever—who are trying to come up with ideas that will keep us safe is very heartening. I am encouraged by the ability of scientists to sort these things out, and I am grateful that the mortality rate of this virus is not like the one in the movie. I do believe that we will sort this out. But it is really up to our government leadership to decide how fast we sort it out, and how many people need to suffer before they pull their heads out of their asses.”
You can find “Contagion” on any Digital VOD service if you want to revisit the film.