My thanks to you. While I was struggling to develop the link to the LA Times, you did connect to a very similar article. I will say that this movie does a bit better than the usual hollywood potboiler ( the seizure scenes were coached by medical personnel, I understand). But there are several unlikely events in the movie - the quick incubation period of the virus and the very rapid transmission, and a few other things. Perfectly acceptable for dramatic effect. I will note and do admit, that many subject experts do give the movie good marks for much of the way they handle the subject. So Contagion is better than average in this respect.

It is not that pandemics aren't real - a casual look at history shows the effects of the Black Death and the 1918 influenza epidemic. I just don't think that one needs to go out and get some exotic masks and bio suits on the basis of one movie.

I grew up during the Cold War. My quiet college town would have been a smoking crater if missiles had been launched - we were surrounded by ICBM silos deterring the Red Menace. Potential disaster, even if the odds are unlikely, is always just around the corner.

On the other hand, as I have gone through life, I have lost friends and associates. Still in high school, an acquaintance disproved a pet theory of his pertaining to Russian roulette in a very dramatic, messy way. I lost a good friend in an auto accident, and others to scuba and rock climbing mishaps. Another succumbed to diseases related to his alcoholism. Two very good associates died of cancer in their fiftieth decade - they were both consistent smokers. Another, the last time I saw him, complained that after fifteen miles of walking, his legs got sore. He was 85 at the time. He eventually expired at about 102.

So, while disasters my wipe us out, more mundane events and life style choices are more likely to lead to our demise. Let's wash our hands regularly, enjoy the time we have, and not take Hollywood entertainment too seriously.