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.
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.
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.
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"Contagion" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 4 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/contagion_5891>.
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