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8:43 a.m. - 2011-09-24 An excellent cast is led by Gwyneth Paltrow, who has unluckily been assigned the role of Patient One. Although she dies (very unpleasantly) early in the movie, we see her in flashbacks throughout, as the CDC and other investigators find out more about the origin of the virus. Laurence Fishburne is the government academic tasked with finding out about the virus and stopping it, and Jude Law is a blogger/rumormonger/cynical opportunist vested in discrediting the authorities by promising a homeopathic cure sweetened by a conspiracy theory. There's an interesting scene in which Sanjay Gupta, playing himself, pits Fishburne against "surprise" guest Law, exploiting the crisis while cloaking himself in the mantle of journalistic impartiality. I think this is exactly what would happen in real life, and Gupta is one of the TV personalities who would make it happen. The film has been praised (justifiably) for its political and scientific accuracy. The popularity of Law's character is one example, and another is the female bureaucrat who is more worried about the cost and inconvenience of the investigation, prompting Kate Winslet, another CDC investigator to give a quick but compelling explanation of R(0), the reproduction number of contagious entities. There is one important flaw in the science, however, and its potential for harm is considerable. A scientist thinks she has found an effective vaccine for the pandemic, so she injects herself with it. So far that amounts to questionable practice with noble intentions. But then she immediately visits her father, who is dying of the virus. This, she tells him, will be the test of the vaccine: if she lives or dies. Well, in the real world she would unquestionably die, because it takes an average of two weeks from the time of getting a vaccination to develop full immunity. There are already too many people out there who think it's okay to delay getting a vaccine until the last minute. Which would in many cases be their last minute.
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