Character mistake: During the interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Alan Krumwiede incorrectly describes what an R naught of 2 means. He claims on Day 1 there were 2 people infected, then 4, then 16, then 256... This is raising each number to the 2nd power (squaring each number.) But we learned earlier in the movie from Dr. Erin Mears that the R naught indicates the number of people who will become infected by 1 infected person. So to calculate the spread of the disease, each # of infected should be multiplied by 2, not squared. It should go Day 1 = 2, Day 2 = 4, Day 3 = 8, Day 4 = 16, Day 5 = 32, etc. (01:06:35)
Contagion (2011)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Kate Winslet
A vaccine is discovered around day 16. However the discovery, production and initial deliveries of vaccine took until Day 133. The final death toll is not mentioned.
Dr. Hextall places samples of MEV-1 in cryogenic storage. The source of the virus is revealed. And shows a digger clears some jungle and disturbs some bats, with one finding shelter and food in a banana tree. The bat then flies over a pig pen, dropping the food from its mouth, which is then eaten by a piglet. A chef chooses the piglet and returns to the casino where he works. As he handles the pig in the kitchen, getting cuts on his hands, he doesn't wash his hands called to meet a customer who turns out to be Beth. The chef shakes hands with her giving her the mix of bat and pig viruses, making the chef ground zero and Beth the second case of the virus.
More mistakes in Contagion
Dr. Ellis Cheever: What have you eaten? I mean something that didn't come from a vending machine.
Dr. Erin Mears: Taco Bell!
Trivia: Contagion got various accolades for its authenticity, being "very well fact checked compared to most science blockbusters", according to New Scientist. The screenwriter did months of research, enlisting the help of epidemiologists who edited the script and guided the actors.
Question: After Alan Krumweide starts spreading misinformation about Forsythia curing MEV-1, we see a scene in a pharmacy being flooded with desperate customers. But if Forsythia is a homeopathic drug, then why is it being sold in pharmacies in the first place? As the characters say later on, it takes months just to get a drug approved, let alone sold.
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Answer: Many pharmacies in the US sell homeopathic supplements.