Contagion. Dir. Steven Soderbergh. Perf. Robin Bonaccorsi. Warner Bros. 2011. DVD

An ambitious international production that brings together a dozen stars and covers almost the entire globe. The wife of an American named Mitch returns from Hong Kong with signs of illness. At first glance, it seems that this is an ordinary flu, but it soon becomes obvious that this is something more serious – a woman dies, followed by her son, and this gives rise to the largest epidemic of the 21st century. There are several central characters and key plot lines in the film, and some of them turned out to be weaker than others, but at the same time there are extremely interesting images in Infection (the hysterical blogger performed by Jude Law turned out to be especially bright), and the script tries to build as believable and realistic chronicle of the spread of the deadly virus in the modern world and, of course, the fight against it. This film, which was filmed almost 8 years before the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, describes the spread of the virus in exactly the same way as it did in 2019. The same virus came from a man who became infected in a distant province of China, and spread just as quickly. Within three months, almost all countries of the world were infected. Of course, this film is not a documentary, so only fictional characters can be seen in it, but the author was close enough to the current situation of the spread of the Coronavirus. I found the answer to one of my questions, albeit indirectly, in this film “Coronavirus is changing the planet’s climate – is it true or myth?” Of course this is a myth. It is not the Coronavirus that changes the climate of our planet, but man and his activities change the climate and lead to global problems on Earth. In this film, it is shown that, just like in our life, they proposed the isolation of people from each other. This was one of those activities that helped to cope with the virus. Well, of course, medicine and a big breakthrough in this area helped the heroes of the film. The audience for the film is wide enough. After watching this film, I was once again convinced of personal hygiene and, of course, taking protective measures when visiting crowded places. Not all people observe such precautions in relation to themselves, maybe after watching such a movie, many will think about the need to apply protective measures for themselves

Joe Hill, The Fireman A Novel. William Morrow and Company, 2016. Web.

In this book of the genre – mysticism and thriller, it is described that no one knows where and when it started. A new epidemic is spreading across the country like wildfire. This is Dragon Scale, a highly contagious fungus that causes black and gold spots on the body, similar to a tattoo, and then burns the wearer in a flash of spontaneous combustion. Millions are infected, but there is no vaccine. There is no security. Teams of volunteers kill and burn the peddlers. At the same time, many people are afraid to go to the quarantine complex, because they do not always want to say goodbye to their loved ones. The largest number of people questioned in society.

But there is a mysterious Fireman, his skin is covered with “scales“, he controls the burning of his body and uses it to protect other patients. In these desperate times, Nurse Harper Grayson must uncover the Firefighter’s secrets before turning to ash. It is very hard for people, the epidemic has rampant. I believe that this situation, which can be seen when reading the book, can be compared with an epidemic in the distant past, with an epidemic caused by the plague. It was at that time that almost all the settlements that were infected ended up dying when they reached Nurse Harper. I think that in our time or in the time of the future, there can hardly be such epidemics. Indeed, today medicine has made great strides forward. It becomes scary that in the book people were killed because they were infected “People were taken out of the forest. Mostly children, but with them – several women. Some of the children were naked. The women and children emerging from the trees were herded into a dense heap. The children were crying. From afar, their voices seemed to flow into the groan of the first autumn wind. One of the women lifted a little boy in her arms and hugged her, people were taken to the field for execution, so it is difficult to assume that someone was shot by mistake.”

I cannot understand and accept the fact that sick people need to be destroyed; this is not acceptable in our society. If I could talk to the author, then I asked why he had such thoughts, namely the destruction of the infected population. After all, this does not solve the problem with the virus. Of course, the style of this work is only fantasy, but always in the works of science fiction writers there is a share of some facts from our life. The audience that can understand the work of a given author must be an adult, because the child’s psyche can be affected by such a work. I almost did not find answers to my questions that I put in my research. But reading this book prompted me to think – and during the plague and cholera epidemic, the same bodies were burned and not always there were only corpses. Of course, such a work is interesting only for introductory reading.