In an apparent effort to glean what one might expect from a deadly viral pandemic, streams of the 2011 film “Contagion” spiked earlier this month, placing the eerily prophetic flick near the top of many streaming services’ most-watched lists.
Perhaps now realizing the power they wielded, stars of the film, including Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard and Jennifer Ehle, have each released home videos to educate people on how the coronavirus spreads and urging viewers to continue to be vigilant. The PSAs are with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.
“Every single one of us, regardless of age or ethnicity, is at risk of getting it,” in her clip.
Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the movie examines the now-terrifyingly real possibility of a scenario in which a lethal, airborne flu kills victims within days. Damon, whose character was luckily immune to the proverbial virus, missive that “Contagion” is just “a movie. This is real life.”
“I have no reason to believe that I’m immune to COVID-19. And neither do you,” he adds.
For his part, Fishburne . “If we can slow this thing down, it will give our doctors and our nurses in our hospitals a fighting chance to help us all get through this thing together,” he says.
Meanwhile, Winslet asks her husband to hold her smartphone camera while she demonstrates proper hand-washing technique, which she learned from health experts who worked with her to prepare for her role as an epidemiologist in “Contagion”.
“Wash your hands like your life depends on it,” while over a restroom sink, “because right now, in particular, it just might.” She adds that the lives of “someone you love or . . . someone you might not know” are equally as “deserving of your consideration.” She goes on to explain how the coronavirus pathogen is transmitted and best practices to avoid it, according to scientists.
In a dispatch from France, where more than 3,000 have died from COVID-19 so far, Marion Cotillard — who also played a physician in the film — painted a very grim portrait of our future in her message.
“Let me tell you right now there are two futures for those who have not seen the worst of the virus,” Cotillard says.
“There is a future where you listen to your public health experts,” she says, by staying home and observing social distancing orders. Then she describes another future wherein health experts are ignored: “In that future, we watch our medical systems collapse as the virus spreads uncontrollably, and the most vulnerable among us die in unfathomable and unnecessary numbers.”
“Contagion” screenwriter Scott Z. Burns created the informative campaign with help from the film’s medical experts. One such consultant, Ian Lipkin, who now leads Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, confirmed earlier this week that he tested positive for COVID-19 🏅— demonstrating that even the most learned experts on the matter are at-risk.