Movies About Global Pandemics Similar to Coronavirus, What Can We Learn?

*As of this posting, the US has more than 3,853 reported coronavirus cases in 49 states, including Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia.

At least 68 people have died: 42 in Washington state, six in California, five in New York, four in Florida, two each in Louisiana and New Jersey and one each in Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Oregon, South Dakota and Virginia, per CNN.

As the government continues to enforce total lockdown on businesses and schools across the nation, health officials expect the number of CORVID-19 cases to keep rising as more people are tested.

Meanwhile, folks on social media have noted several Hollywood movies worth watching (again) that explore a chaotic society amid worldwide pandemonium due to a viral outbreak. 

Most notable is 1995’s “Outbreak,” which follows a team of army doctors “struggling to find a cure for a deadly virus spreading throughout a California town that was brought to America by an African monkey,” via IMBD.com.

Many have been quick to compare the plot to initial reports about the Wuhan, China coronavirus, where the outbreak originated, being linked to the consumption of bats in the region. 

Let’s take a look at addition timely titles below to see if there is anything we can learn (synopsis via IMDB.com) amid global panic. 

OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: Coronavirus Strikes Two Emergency Room Doctors (Ages 70 & 40) Both in Critical Condition!

28 Days Later (2002)
From director Danny Boyle and starring Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris… the film depicts the events four weeks after a highly contagious, rage-inducing virus is unleashed in Great Britain. The incurable virus spreads throughout the UK as a handful of survivors try to find sanctuary.

A sequel, “28 Weeks Later”… “is set after the events of the first film, depicting the efforts of NATO military forces to salvage a safe zone in London, the consequence of two young siblings breaking protocol to find their infected mother, and the resulting reintroduction of the Rage Virus to the safe zone.”

“One aspect of the movie that shares a similarity with the current coronavirus outbreak is the role of asymptomatic carriers in the spread of the infection and how a localized infection goes global by the end of the movie,” writes outlet imitimes.com. 

Quarantine (2008)

This terrifying thriller follows a television reporter and her cameraman who are trapped inside a building quarantined by the CDC, after the outbreak of “a mysterious virus which turns humans into bloodthirsty killers.”

People have compared the plot to the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was turned into a coronavirus quarantine for more than a month.

Contagion (2012)

There are eerie similarities between this dark tale and the current coronavirus crisis as health care officials in several states spar over emergency legislation. 

The story follows “healthcare professionals, government officials and everyday people find themselves in the midst of a worldwide epidemic as the CDC works to find a cure” for a virus that claims 26 million lives across the world. 

No coronavirus vaccine is expected anytime soon, USA Today reports. 

I am Legend (2007)

Will Smith stars an army virologist struggling find a cure for a pandemic that kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters. People have compared the plot to theories that the COVID-19 outbreak is a biological weapon or an experiment gone wrong.

What do you think? 

Sound off in the comments below. 

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