I loved this movie, but I will be honest it scared me quite a bit. Hearing how devastating certain viruses can be and how easily they can spread to a much bigger population made me terrified of what is possible. The documentary was done very well and showcased everything that comes with virus outbreaks. I think watching this movie after COVID puts a lot of things into perspective. I understood right away what they meant by contact tracing because we have been doing it for almost three years. I had a deeper understanding of how quickly viruses could spread and how much they can affect humans, emotionally and physically.
One thing that I learned was how while a virus might not seem bad at first, there are many other factors in play. For example, the Zika virus made people sick, and sometimes some developed a rash, but it was all mild. No one was deeply concerned about it until many children were being born with microcephaly. This is a birth defect where a baby’s head is smaller than expected due to having a smaller brain that might not have developed properly while still in the womb. There are different side effects to a virus that might not even surface until months later. This taught me that even though a virus might now seem bad, it does mean it is still okay to get it. There always be a chance for a virus to cause more complications down the road.
One of the most important things I learned from this movie is that there is a career in tracking down possible outbreaks. I never really considered and even imagined that to be an actual job where people are trained and dedicated their life’s work to look for the next big epidemic/pandemic. If anything, it made me interested in maybe pursuing a career down that path. Organizations and projects like PREDICT are dedicated to detecting viruses that have pandemic potential, and that can move between animals and people. One point that was made in the movie as well was that these deadly pathogens don’t know borders. They don’t care for politics, and poor health care systems anywhere are a threat to everywhere else. We need to work together not only during but before an outbreak to make sure we are all able to overcome it.
I found this information to be very valuable. Given we are still dealing with COVID and all the consequences that came with it, this movie gave a lot of insight into why COVID happened the way it did. It provides information as to why the vaccine for COVID came out so fast. It was because the SARS virus has been studied for years, and we were prepared to create a vaccine. Another reason why this information is valuable is because it gives me more context to events that happened in my childhood. I grew up hearing about Ebola on the news, but all I knew was that it was bad, and I didn’t want to get it. Now having a chance to actually understand what Ebola is and how it affects the body is amazing.
One thing that I found surprising was how lab-grown mosquitoes with modified DNA are being used to combat certain viruses that are spread through mosquitoes. The debate of whether or not modifying different organisms to better serve our society is a good idea has been going on for a while. I guess I didn’t expect actual action when it came to modifying these mosquitoes.
A couple of questions that I have are the following:
- How much can lab-grown organisms negatively impact our environment? Does releasing male mosquitoes whose kids will die before fully maturing disturb the natural ecosystem to a larger degree?
- I am not sure if I truly want to know this, but what is the next possible epidemic/pandemic? Does the fact that COVID happened stall other outbreaks from happening for a certain time or is all based on “luck”?
- How dangerous is it to travel around the world to collect data samples of the next possible huge & deadly outbreak?
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