Remarkable Resemblance between ‘Contagion’, ‘When the Wild Wind Blows’ and the Corona virus crisis.

Contagion, a movie released in 2011 depicts a timeline of a fictitious pandemic named “MEV-1”, which is unbelievably similar to the recent Corona virus crisis. It makes the viewers feel like director Steven Soderbergh and producers of the movie Stacey Sher, Michael Shamberg and Gregory Jacobs had already known something like this would occur in the near future. The movie shows that the virus initially spreads from an infected Bat that drops a piece of banana at a pigsty in Hong Kong and one of the piglets eats the banana. Later on, the same piglet is butchered by a chef at a casino’s restaurant. The chef unknowingly gets the virus in his hands and while clicking a picture with Beth Emhoff (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), he transfers the virus to her. So, the bat, pig, chef, Beth and another waiter at the restaurant are the major hosts through whom the virus initially spreads and infects millions of people around the world within days, in the movie.

There are many reports that claim that the Corona virus may have initially spread through infected Bats. The American society for microbiology in its Journal of Virology mentions that bats appear to be ideal candidates for the natural reservoirs of all Corona viruses. The study revealed that Corona viruses in bats exhibit high genetic diversity and high prevalence across a wide geographical distribution, possibly with asymptomatic or persistent infection.

The cause of spread of Virus in the movie is shown as human contact (one touch). When an infected person touches a surface be it a glass, a desk or anything, it leaves virus behind, that is then transferred to others who touch it. Beth gets the virus from the chef at Hong Kong and when she returns to USA from her business trip, she then transfers it to her son as well. Both of their symptoms are high fever and severe coughing as well as had seizures, dizziness and frothed at mouth when they passed. They eventually die from MEV- 1 in a matter of days, but Beth’s husband Mitch (Matt Damon) even though had contact with his wife and son does not get the virus. It is later on found that he is immune to the disease.

In Corona viruses case also, the symptoms are almost similar, that includes dry coughing, high fever, headaches, rash on skin, or discoloration of fingers or toes, difficulty breathing or shortness of breath etc. However, in terms of immunity there are no exact reports of people biologically immune to getting the novel Corona virus. People can have strong anti-bodies naturally to prevent them from getting bacteria’s and viruses including the Corona virus or they may develop strong antibodies after getting the virus, but, it is yet to be proved.

In terms of cure and vaccine, in the movie Contagion, research scientist from Centre for disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr. Ally Hextall (Jennifer Ehle) stresses that it can take months, maybe a year, to be able to distribute a vaccine after testing, clinical trials, manufacturing and distribution. However, she does the final experiment on herself by vaccinating herself with the sample that was made by her team, which turns out to be the cure and then is able to provide doses for human use in just several months. In case of Corona virus also, a year to 18 months is said to be an optimistic time window for a possible Corona virus vaccine, however the time period for a final vaccine may take many years. In a recent development of University of Oxford and the Russian invention, the vaccine trail appeared safe and seemed to trigger an immune response. Trials involving 1,077 people by the Oxfords team, showed that the injection led to them making antibodies and T-cells that can fight Corona virus. The findings are only a product of an early trial and it’s still too soon to know if that is enough to offer protection and many other trials are under way, for the ultimate vaccine.

In the movie, many heath workers and frontlines die from Corona virus such as, Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet), an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer who gets the virus when she travels to the CDC. Similarly, thousands of frontline healthcare workers and social workers have died from Corona throughout the world, while serving the infected ones.

There is another instance of striking resemblance, between Corona virus crisis and a song by an English Heavy Metal band ‘Iron Maiden’ from Leyton, East London. The song is called ‘When the Wild Wind Blows’ and it was released by the band in 2010 through the album ‘The final Frontier’.

This song is based on a novel released in 1982 entitled “When the Wind Blows”. Even though it’s a war-time inspired song, every chorus and every verse matches with the current situation of Corona virus crisis. The song was also played in an American Series “The Walking Dead”, which revolves around a Zombie Apocalypse in USA. The 11-minute track starts off with the first chorus:

Have you heard what they said on the news today?

Have you heard what is coming to us all?

That the world as we know it will be coming to an end

Have you heard, have you heard?

The chorus depicts a dangerous situation where people are awaiting for something horrible to happen, and it’s always on the news. Whenever they turn their TVs the news about the expected vicious incident scares them for life. Which is similar with Corona virus crisis, where the headlines are always about deaths and infection rates of the virus. People are forced to live in threat. People are either furloughed, out of job/unemployed or working from home and the news about the pandemics is all they can hear.

The second paragraph of first verse goes on like:

They said there’s nothing can be done about the situation

They said there’s nothing you can do at all

To sit and wait around for something to occur

Did you know, did you know

It means that people are helpless and they can’t do anything about the situation in which they’re at. It’s an inevitable phenomenon and there’s nothing there to stop it. Regarding Corona virus crisis, it can be seen that as long as there’s no intact vaccine made that could cure the virus, the whole world is helpless. They’ve got no choice but to face it. Many nations of the world including Nepal, Australia, UK, USA, Korea and India were/are under partial/full lock down/prohibitory order, to reduce movement and prevent people from getting the virus. Apart from washing/sanitizing hands, wearing face masks and maintaining physical distance, no any strong preventive measures could be found.

In the second Verse (first and second paragraph), the song goes on as:

There will be a catastrophe the like we’ve never seen

There will be something that will light the sky

That the world as we know it, it will never be the same

Did you know, did you know?

The lyrics depicts that the moment of danger is near and it will definitely change the upcoming era, one way or the other. The world however it was before the catastrophe, will never be the same. Likewise, the economic and social crisis that the world is facing at the moment due to the pandemic, such as unemployment, poverty, inequality and racism will and is already changing people and their lives. People are suffering mentally as they are isolating themselves and are unable to move as they would in normal situations. It has led the suicide rate to grow higher each passing month.

In Verse 3, the song goes on like this:

They’ve been preparing for some weeks now

For when the crucial moment comes

To take their refuge in the shelter

Let them prepare for what will come

The people and the government are preparing for whatever that might come. Currently many parts of Nepal including the capital is facing prohibitory order, due to high infection rate. People can only go out to buy essentials, that also only for some specified hours in the morning and evening. It has led to people buying lots and lots of supplies at a time, for it is unknown how long the pandemic and the prohibitory order followed by it will last. Similarly, when the 4 months long lockdown began in Nepal in March 24, 2020 people were so much threatened for what the future of Nepal would be. There was a tension if the condition was going to be as bad as it was in some of the other countries like Italy, USA, and India. People were buying tons of food and all other necessary equipment's for home storage and the government was preparing for the medical kits, RDTs, PCR testing machines, building isolation and quarantine wards for when the crucial moment would come.

How the movie and the song resembles with Corona virus crisis is undeniably brilliant. There have been instances of four pandemic within the past one hundred years, which resulted from the emergence of a novel influenza strain for which humans possessed little or no immunity: the Spanish flu (1918), the Asian flu (1957), the Hong Kong flu (1968), and the Swine flu (2009). The writers of the movie and the song may have been influenced by these pandemics of the past, but, the Covid-19 is a completely new virus, and its resemblance with the movie and the song shows how much powerful peoples imagination and creativity could be. It feels like these decade old movie and song have come into existence.