Visible crew/equipment: When Stone and Hall are in the van in Piedmont looking for the satellite, at the point right after Stone says "hold it, you need to back up and go to the left", at two brief instances you can see the large rectangular movie light reflected in the back doors of the van. (00:21:55)
Visible crew/equipment: When Stone and Hall fly over in the helicopter, the mark for the positioning of one of the 'corpses' is visible. There is a thick black line perfectly outlining the right side of the body. It's the one the camera centers on as Stone talks about the birds spreading the disease.
Answer: The satellite containing the Andromeda strain was recovered quickly, helping contain the contagion. Also, Piedmont was an isolated town, further limiting the spread. Dead birds and other animals were shown, but most would be happening off-camera. The scientists also learned later that Andromeda quickly mutated into a non-lethal form but one that caused certain synthetic materials to dissolve, creating further havoc. To eradicate the strain, clouds were seeded to produce rain, which swept Andromeda out to sea where the alkaline ocean water rendered it inert. Would add that movies at this time and before had stricter standard codes and did not show excessive blood and gore like they do today.
raywest ★