10 Things Contagion Predicted Perfectly (Or Not) About The Current Pandemic
2. Months Of Lockdowns, Not Weeks
What It Gets Right
As the majority of politicians around the world have figured out(if not all), when it comes to lockdowns and quarantine, we are very much in it for the the long haul. While we are still in the early stages of the pandemic and lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus, the predicted events from the film are already coming to fruition.
While the first two acts of the Movie depict the early days of the epidemic, the concluding act occurs many months later, with the lockdowns still very much in place. There is indications from around the globe that this will be the case in reality.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has stated that any restrictions and lockdowns will last at least six months, while the World Health Organisation has stated via the World Economic Forum website that successful lockdowns in China took several months.
What It Doesn't
Because the virus in the film was a lot more potent than the one we face in reality, the lockdowns have not been as severe (so far) as Soderbergh's vision. This has meant that the depiction of rubbish piling up in the streets as depicted in the film has not (yet) eventuated.
The film depicts a fatality rate of its virus at around 25-30%, despite every character who gets sick in the film dying. As reported by Atman Azad on the CNN website on March 31, the real world fatality rate at this time sits at 0.66%.