The Outbreak Movie Analysis

The Outbreak depicts a very vivid story of society and our reactions when the forces of nature seem to be against us. The film begins with the setting of Motaba River Valley in 1967, when an outbreak of a deadly fever has affected a mercenary camp. Although scientist were brought in to find a cure for the infection disease, it was without luck. Due to the high mortality rate of the people infected, the scientists could not find a cure to stop it from spreading. We further learn that the government did not want to create fear amongst its population, which convinced them to bomb the camp, in order to keep the virus a secret. This virus later became known as the Motaba virus when it later reemerged in Africa in the 1990s. Eventually, outbreaks …show more content…
They used epidemiology to figure out where the disease might have been contacted from, who might be patient zero, the host , and that the virus might no longer in Boston but only in Cedar creek which helped them to allocate the proper resources to where it was needed. The military was trying to get a bio weapon instead of trying to find a cure at that immediate time, or they would have found one as they did for the first strain of the Motaba virus. This was to enable them to have a fighting chance in the event that virus is used for bioterrorism. Here, the military preferred immediate action which was when they introduced Operation Clean sweep; bombing Cedar creek. This movie clearly illustrates the struggle between wanting to save a tiny number of infected people, and the obligation to secure the general public from the virus. From a public health perspective, this film revealed how quickly a highly contagious virus could spread, the danger of bioterrorism and the importance of public health. The debatable aspects was how quickly the military resolved to using operation clean sweep their reluctance to help in tracing or looking for the