Movies that reflect the Covid-19 Pandemic

Some of you might be aware of these 2 popular movies during the Covid-19 Pandemic. First, Contagion and the second is The Flu because so many people talk about these recently.



1. Contagion


Contagion was released in 2011. The story was about the spread of a fictional pandemic of a virus called MEV-1, which kills between 25 and 30 per cent of those it infected.

There are couple of similarities between the MEV-1 in Contagion and the Covid-19, as follows.

a. Transmission
The MEV-1 virus transmits from one person to another through saliva, doorknobs, handshakes, credit cards, empty glasses, napkins, kiss, etc. It's also similar to the Covid-19. Therefore, it is suggested for us to always clean our hands and avoid touching our faces.

b. The Origin of the Virus
The MEV-1 is modelled upon the bat-borne Nipah virus. It is originated from a pig that ate a piece of banana dropped by an infected bat escaping the destruction of its palm tree forest habitat in China. Even though the origin of Covid-19 is still a mystery to a scientists, however, similar to Contagion, bats are considered by some epidemiologists to be the possible source of the coronavirus.

c. The Symptoms
In Contagion, the sick people experienced fevers, sweating, headaches, sore throat and cough. They also had seizures, dizziness and frothed at the mouth when they died. The Covid-19 symptom is also similar, but includes trouble breathing, runny nose and anosmia, a lack of sense of smell, and dygeusia, a lack of taste for several cases.



2. The Flu


It is a Korean movie that was released in 2013. The movie was about the airborne virus outbreak, called H5N1. The behaviour of the virus is really aggressive that can kill the victims within 36 hours. However, unlike Contagion, the H5N1 was the mutation of Avian Influenza Virus that was infected the illegal immigrants that were being smuggled into Korea. All of them died due to this virus, except for 1 person that can produce the antibody for such virus. Within a few hours, the virus spread all over one city in Korea and infected thousands of people.
The symptoms of H5N1 are severe cough and high fever.

General Similarities:
Except for the symptoms, origin of the virus, behavior of the virus and the transmission of the virus, there are couple of general similarities between the above movies and the Covid-19 Pandemic, as follows.

1. Lockdown
The government policy when facing the outbreak is almost the same, which is Lockdown. This action reflects in Contagion and The Flu. Also in some countries to contain the spread of Covid-19.

2. The treatment of the deceased
They are being treated specifically to avoid the spread of the virus, such as wrapped with plastic, get it into the coffin, disinfected and none shall be allowed to come to the funeral, not even the family.

3. First victim is important
In the Flu, the doctor is desperately in need to find the 1st victim in order to get the information of the journey of the virus, so they can find the vaccine. This scenario is also being recognized by the virologist to find the vaccine for Covid-19. However, unfortunately, until now it's still a mystery. Therefore, the scientists are looking for the other alternative ways, such as to get the antibody from the healed person, isolating the virus, etc.
Well, there are other movies about the virus outbreak as well, such as Outbreak, Carriers, Deranged, etc. But I haven't watched the latters. Will save them on my movie list to watch during this quarantine period.

Stay safe and healthy everyone!

This article read 2094 times.

Aulia Ulfah

I am from Jakarta, Indonesia but now living in Antalya, Turkey with my husband. Sometimes I return to my homeland for my job and sell things from Turkey! Yes, you can buy them in my shop in the following link! 😊