The Contagion SHTF Scenario
Dr. John Woods 05.29.19
If ever there was a most scary SHTF viral pandemic illustrated by a movie, it has to be the 2011 film “Contagion.” If you are the least bit a conspiracy theorist about a disease spreading across the entire globe, this is a must-see movie. The unfolding of events from how the disease spreads to the impact on society, government agencies, and societal reactions is textbook. The movie does however offer insights on how to survive such an event.
Without giving away the essential elements of the plot, it does follow a classic storyline one might expect to see (or have seen) in real-life scenarios. First the disease impacts one person and then her son with a flu-like illness. Within a day the woman is dead. Her husband is immune. He comes home from watching his wife die in the hospital to find his son is dead. Then the scenario rapidly unfolds.
The medical community is baffled as the CDC is slow to gear up. More and more people are getting sick all over the world. Numbers are rolling in as researchers rush to find a vaccine. Schools, business, and life shuts down. A lead medical response doctor contracts the disorder and perishes. Medical labs start gearing up. Homeland Security finally engages with plots flourishing.
A classic protagonist emerges, played by Jude Law as a quasi-journalist-blogger pointing blame on the government and slamming agencies for collusion between factions (aka David Hogg of the Parkland School movement). In the end he is arrested for spreading misinformation and profiting off his blogging and relationships touting his rhetoric.
In the streets, supplies are dwindling. Store shelves are emptying fast. People are scared of one another. Most are wearing protective masks. Burglars are ransacking houses looking for food and valuables. The main character and stepdaughter are on lockdown. Gun shots are heard next door. He checks neighbors’ houses for food, and finds a shotgun for defense, since he is not prepared in the least. Government supply trucks distribute MREs but run out. Riots and assaults ensue.
As the movie rolls on, finally after a series of trials, a vaccine is found. Manufacture starts. Distribution begins based on birth dates. Attacks and assaults of vaccine vials occur.
Lessons learned? Have a prepper plan ready to execute with ample supplies of food, water, medical supplies, and protection, shelter in place, listen to news broadcasts, secure family and house, avoid others, wait it out.
This movie is a prepper must-see — rent it, buy it, watch it.
