The poverty behind the plague: "Contagion" and real life

People cough, then have seizures, froth at the mouth, and die on the spot. Garbage piles up on the streets. Busy airports become deserted. We see the worst of human nature: rioting, looting, hoarding. There’s nothing but the instinct to survive.

So goes the film Contagion. It tells a bleak but familiar story, one that’s been repeated in countless disaster films and novels. The world is increasingly interconnected. Air travel makes it smaller. Undeveloped parts harbour dangerous new viruses. Overcrowded cities will send these viruses into the network of global cities. We’re all in much more intimate contact than we imagine. Bottom line: Pandemics are the price we pay for our global connections.

We need to change this storyline. Pandemics are not entirely “natural” disasters. Rather, human beings, and their myriad social and economic problems, produce the conditions that precede and fuel pandemics.

Unfortunately, global poverty is not one of the film’s topics, but it’s a key factor in the spread of a pandemic. Overcrowding, subpar living conditions and malnutrition all increase the rate at which a virus can spread and mutate. more