Contagion is a film released in 2011 that has recently popularized once again, but this time in 2020. The coronavirus outbreak has caused this movie to appear on TV screens due to the relatability that it has now.

The film was first inspired by the 2002-2004 SARS outbreak and the 2009 swine flu pandemic, and now families are rewatching the movie due to our present circumstances.

It is much easier to watch a movie unfold than to experience it ourselves, and Contagion is a thriller about an outbreak of a deadly airborne disease that quickly spreads all over the world, much like our situation today. 

Contagion was directed by Steven Soderbergh and has renown actors such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne, and Marion Cotillard. 

Contagion focuses on a family affected by the virus who have to adapt to a new way of life during the pandemic, much like families all around the world today.

Contagion drew in its audience with medical facts and accuracy as well as the deadly truth of the possibilities of a pandemic outbreak, which is happening now with the coronavirus. But Contagion did dramatize the hysteria and intense paranoia, with the actors in the film rioting and robbing grocery stores and pharmacies for supplies.

The film introduces the virus in Hong Kong, China, while with the coronavirus it began in Wuhan. Both of the viruses were airborne and easily spread, but the virus in Contagion infected all age ranges and immediately killed in a few days.

Contagion accurately portrays the lives of the people searching for a vaccine, the government, the CDC, and families simply trying to survive. It demonstrates how fast a virus like this spreads in public places, and how transmission takes place with just one action.

Contagion shows how a pandemic can globally spread through the propagation of just one person.

Once scientists had found a vaccine, Contagion reveals the challenges of its availability and who will get the vaccine first. The CDC created a scheme of people getting a vaccine based on their date of birth, which worked well but created anxiety of getting the vaccine on time.

These post-vaccine complications may be problems we could possibly have once a vaccine for the coronavirus will be found. Contagion shocked the public with its ending, revealing how the virus first began and how it was transmitted to its first victim.

We cannot forget that Contagion is still a movie, and that some scenes are theatrical and there for the added drama.