I really enjoyed watching CONTAGION, a film about what a bird flu pandemic would look like in the United States. It always amazed me how a single case of a novel virus–patient zero–could potentially infect billions in a matter of months–so much so I wrote a book about it called THE THIN WHITE LINE, published in 2009. This novel, the one book I self published, reads like a history of a pandemic that has already occurred in 2012, and is written after the fact. The product of intense research, it explores all aspects of what a pandemic would look like and how the government would respond to it, focusing on my adopted country of Canada, but with experiences applicable to virtually any country with a modern healthcare system. CONTAGION plays much like my book–light on human drama while being heavy on the shock of seeing something very possible, and incredibly destructive, unfold right in your area, while the tasks of survival slowly infiltrate and come to dominate your daily routines. I loved how the movie respects our intelligence, and treats its viewers like grownups. The result is a very realistic portrayal of how a pandemic might occur. If it did, the world may not end, but it will definitely feel like it. Highly recommended.
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