Contagion Page #2

We're checking.

Mr. Neal, I want you to stay with me here.

Can you hear me?|Have you had seizures before? Mr. Neal?

- I want you to open your eyes if you can.|- He's breathing, right?

I couldn't wake him.|I got home, I couldn't wake him.

We both woke up sick this morning.

Watch your head.

Well, the sulci are obliterated.|Let's look at the base.

Oh, my God.

You want me to take a sample, or?

I want you to move away from the table.

- Should I call someone, or?|- Call everyone.

Well, these things happen|up there from time to time.

Meningitis in a college dorm|after a swim meet...

...or West Nile in some summer camp|near a lake.

I was reading that last summer they had|an outbreak of enterovirus encephalitis.

A hundred and three cases,|mainly children.

Well, it's probably too cold up there|for that right now.

As of last night,|there were five deaths and 32 cases.

There's a cluster|in an elementary school.

That's the kind of thing|you have to be prepared for.

It's gonna be all over the news.

What's your single overriding|communications objective?

We're isolating the sick and quarantining|those who we believe were exposed.

Okay, good.

As of this moment,|you and I are attached at the cell phone.

If you need resources, call me.|If you get into a political dogfight, call me.

If you find yourself wide awake,|staring at the walls at 3 a.m...

...wondering why you took the job,|call me.

I sure hope you packed something|warmer than that.

We're looking at around zero|with the windchill.

Don't want you to catch cold.

Do you wanna go to the hotel first,|get situated?

I'd prefer to get started, if that's possible.

- Okay.|- How far is the office?

About a half-hour from here.

Your dad's in isolation.

You can go up to the window,|pick up the phone, and you can talk to him.

- Hey.|- Dad.

- Hey.|- Are you sick?

No, no, no. I'm...

This is all just, you know, a precaution.|They're, you know, just making sure.

But you were with them.|You could still get it.

No, I won't. They said|this happens really, really fast.

And I'm fine.|There's nothing wrong with me.

There's nothing wrong with me.|We're okay. We're okay.

And Clark?

Yeah, you know, I...

I wasn't there.|I went in the ambulance with Beth.

And I just didn't... I...

I left him with Carrie Anne.

I should have been there.

- I could have helped.|- No, no, no. Honey, no, no.

It's good that you weren't there.|I'm happy.

If something had happened to you,|I mean, I'd...

Honey, you're here now, you know.|I'm happy about that.

I'm happy about that.

When are you coming home?

Soon. Very soon. They, you know...

- Why don't you go to your mom's?|- No.

- Just stay in Wisconsin.|- No. She doesn't need me.

She's got Dan. I live here.

You don't have anybody.|I'm not leaving you.

We have 47 cases|and eight deaths as of 5 this afternoon.

It's a weekend.|These numbers might be low.

People are staying home for a couple days,|see if they get better.

At this point, I think|we have to believe this is respiratory.

- Maybe fomites too.|- What's that, fomites?

It refers to transmission|from surfaces.

The average person touches their face|2- or 3000 times a day.

- Two- or 3000 times a day?|- Three to five times every waking minute.

In between, we're touching doorknobs...

...water fountains,|elevator buttons and each other.

Those things become fomites.

Is this something we wanna release|to the press? Respiratory and fomites?

- How's the public gonna react?|- Hard to say. A plastic shark in a movie...

...will keep people from getting|in the ocean, but a warning on cigarettes...

We need to walk the governor through this|before we freak everybody out.

I mean, we can't even tell people|right now what they should be afraid of.

We tried that with swine flu.|All we did was get healthy people scared.

It's the biggest shopping weekend|of the year.

We need to consider closing schools.

And who stays home with the kids?|People that work at stores.

Government workers.|People that work at hospitals.

When will we know what this is?|What causes it, what cures it?

Things that keep people calm.

What we need to determine is this:

For every person who gets sick...

...how many other people|are they likely to infect?

So for seasonal flu,|that's usually about one.

Smallpox, on the other hand,|it's over three.

Now, before we had a vaccine...

...polio spread at a rate|between four and six.

Now, we call that number...

...the R-nought.

R stands for the reproductive rate|of the virus.

Any ideas what that might be for this?

How fast it multiplies depends|on a variety of factors.

The incubation period,|how long a person is contagious.

Sometimes people can be contagious|without even having symptoms.

We need to know that too.

We need to know how big the population|of people susceptible to the virus might be.

So far that appears to be everyone|with hands, a mouth and a nose.

Once we know the R-nought, we'll be able|to get a handle on the scale of the epidemic.

So it's an epidemic now.|An epidemic of what?

We sent samples to the CDC.

In 72 hours, we'll know what it is,|if we're lucky.

Clearly, we're not lucky.

What do we got?

A young woman in Minnesota,|recently traveled to China.

Son also died.

As of this morning, 87 cases, 15 deaths.

- Did you have a good Thanksgiving?|- I worked.

You? Really?

Texas. Salmonella. Pretty limited.

Mine was great, thanks.

It's pleomorphic,|but tends toward ovoid in shape.

I see structures on the surface|that look like glycoproteins...

...but there's nothing|morphologically pathognomonic.

We tested all her antibodies.|I didn't see much cross-reactivity.

Her body had no idea what to do with it.|It just kept amplifying.

Send it to Sussman in San Francisco.

If he doesn't know what it is,|nobody does.

It shows novel characteristics|and appears to be chimeric in origin.

Virus is 15 to 19 kilobases in length|and containing six to 10 genes.

Typical of a paramyxovirus.

It's Godzilla, King Kong|and Frankenstein all in one.

- Hold on. Sh*t, I'll call you back.|- You've got it in there.

- Get away from here.|- Where'd it come from? Military?

You're not a doctor|and you're not a writer.

Yes, I am a writer. Yes, I am.

Blogging is not writing.|It's graffiti with punctuation.

I am a journalist, and there's|informed discussion on the blogosphere...

...that this is a biological weapon.

You wanna talk to me,|call my office and make an appointment.

- Dr. Cheever?|- Yes.

- Do you have a moment?|- Sure.

We found him. Tell the unit|on the way to his house to come in.

Excuse me. Who are you?

My name is Dennis French|with the Department of Homeland Security.

And what's this all about?

Rear Admiral Haggerty's expecting us|in the emergency operations center.

We can discuss it there.

This happened in Kowloon.

Today we've got workers at a casino|in Macao striking over conditions.

Three have died in one bunkhouse.|CIA thinks there may be a connection.

Casinos are of particular concern|to Homeland Security.

Rate this script:5.0 / 5 votes