the virus mutates then to the Latin call
CDC my name is brian hammond brian is an
ecologist for the CDC specializing in
infectious diseases
today I'm breaking down clips from
movies and television about pandemics
I'd like to go on record that I love all
these movies I don't want to come across
as I'm not a fan because I am small-town
outbreak from the movie outbreak this
one has so many flaws you see people
shaking hands and that doesn't occur in
an outbreak area if there is some kind
of a greeting it's usually elbow to
elbow the PPE personal protective
equipment is is reasonably accurate we
don't go into a place wearing helmets
and hazmat suits like that but the
peppers air purifying respirators that
they have on their waists are our
peppers that we have used in the past
and the whole point of the powered air
is that you have positive pressure
inside the head cover it's pushing air
out and nothing can come in
they go from this right here with a full
hazmat suit and a helmet two guys with
surgical masks you notice that she's not
wearing any eye protection and the guy
directly behind her is so one of the
little details that if this were truly a
fever virus outbreak and this was an
isolation ward they would all have a
face shield or eye protection some
gloves not some others without gloves
it's total chaos it's a mess
that's pure Hollywood fiction apparently
they all go to the movies here smallpox
er when do the rashes are three days ago
[Music]
follow me quickly what is it it's just a
precaution excuse me coming through here
suitcases smallpox oh my god dunt dunt
done this is a tad on the far-fetched
side because smallpox was eradicated in
1980 if a vaccine for now the CDC should
have a stockpile of all the smallpox
that exists in the world are in freezers
in really secure labs smallpox has been
eradicated
I heard the Russians had some on ice if
a terrorist group got old and for this
to actually have happened there would
have to have been some kind of a very
very serious breach in security damn I
should have called in sick day we're
gonna look at a couple of scenes from
contagion and here's where they explain
the spread of the virus here is a model
of the virus and how it attaches to its
host
the blue is virus and the gold is human
and the red is the viral attachment
protein and the green is its receptor in
the human cells it is available this
computer software isn't is able to form
sort of a three-dimensional image of the
virus itself and they can identify
through sequencing which parts of the
virus are the receptors where it binds
to the human cell which parts are coding
for certain proteins that cause illness
or replication and we've sequenced the
virus and determined its origin and
we've modelled the way it enters the
cells of the lung in the brain very
accurate in terms of being able to
pinpoint certain areas of the genome
that will have certain effects on the
human or on the virus or even the cell
that it's
affecting the virus contains both bat
and pig sequences in the bottom right
and here you can see the crossover event
that pig back yeah I haven't heard the
term crossover when the virus leaves the
host and enters an organism that's not a
host it's called spillover as the
spillover events occur and with the
multiple times this virus is replicating
they're looking at these mutations as
this thing has been going along that's
actually something they can do animals
spreading disease contagion very
accurate especially the not hand-washing
thing there was an in bowl of rest and
outbreak in the Philippines at a pig
farm we now have evidence that bats are
our possible hosts for resting virus flu
to the pig farm and then it was found in
the pigs in a sample that was shipped to
plum island outbreak has a ton of
problems
let's take a look at the scene with the
monkey
monkey deserves an Oscar I don't know
where to begin
what can I talk about the fact that
that's the South American monkey that
they caught in Africa
well it's something at least maybe it's
enough part of my job at the CDC is to
catch animals take samples and test them
for viruses the monkey is a capuchin
monkey not found in Africa it would be
some other green monkey like a vervet or
something else like that we wouldn't use
a live person as bait let alone a child
we actually study reservoir ecology know
their habits know their habitat and know
how to catch them you know a monkey
could technically bite someone and have
virus in the saliva but generally
speaking they're so sick and they just
kind of lay there and die in contagion
they really got it right here they did
not virus choosing the host World War Z
he's infecting himself with another
pathogen in hopes that this zombie would
pass him by or the virus in the zombie
would pass him by
I like the idea it gets to essentially
the goal of a virus it wants to find a
host that it can continue to replicate
its genetic material indefinitely that's
not the question we're really asking is
it it's fiction of course because a
virus isn't going to smell if a guy sick
be able to tell if this guy has cancer
and therefore I don't want to infect
that it can't choose global pandemic and
dawn of the Planet of the Apes source of
the virus was traced back to drug
testing done at Genesis laboratories in
San Francisco location showing signs of
what's being dubbed the simian field CDC
is projecting a fatality toll ranging
from 5 million to a
150 million in the next six to eight
theoretically that's how things will
happen those red lines look kind of like
you know air air travel pathways and
then having interactions with
individuals within an airport you can't
avoid some type of personal space
invasion it's a very plausible scenario
now known as patient zero was
accidentally exposed to retrovirus 8lz
113 in this clip they say patient zero
and that's not something that we
typically use in my field we tend to use
what we call an index patient the
individual that has first been
identified to have whatever virus it is
or disease caused by whatever virus it
is this clip is about virus mutation
from the television show house an infant
picks up a regular old measles virus
it's a rash it's extremely uncomfortable
as a wicked fever but he lives
well the animation is not extremely
accurate why do people lie to me because
the measles virus is an RNA virus and
that's a piece of DNA can we get off my
screw-ups and focus on theirs
once every million or so times the virus
mutates
this explosion is not accurate again why
are we getting hung up on what I did
what happens is just sort of an error in
the copying of the nucleotide bases
instead of Dan having a fever and a rash
the virus travels to his brain and hides
for 16 years some acute sclerosing pain
encephalitis daus's disease is an actual
disease and it is basic sort of a
leftover from having a measles virus
infection so that that part is true it's
a sick brain zombie infection the
walking dead by scan forward to the
first event scanning to first event
there's no artificial intelligence at
the CDC there are auditoriums at the CDC
but they don't look like this the brain
goes into shutdown then the major organs
it invades the brain like meningitis
meningitis is more the condition when
here they're making it seem like it's
some sort of a pathogen scan to the
second event I've never used the word
event just shell driven by mindless
instant in severe accidents I would
imagine that that's possibility I think
technically you'd probably be declared
brain dead
that there'd be some electrical activity
there I don't think you could see it
like that
what was that this looks like pure CGI
to me we protected the public from very
nasty infection in the hospital in the
movie outbreak dr. Daniels yeah there's
something I think you should see this
way the patient was admitted a week ago
after a car accident he's had no contact
with anyone in isolation you started
that there because he just now had
contact with that individual and
isolation truly this guy should know
better the guy pokes his head into the
isolation ward says doctor pulls the guy
out they walk down a clean hallway
directly into a patient's room with
Ebola outbreaks it would be an entire
disinfection process before you even
came out of that probably get sprayed
down some sort of a disinfectant take
all of the PPE off possibly even shower
depending on where he were by doing this
they just walked in with filthy PPE and
potentially contaminated everything in
the hallway that they just walked out
that would never happen
it said one if you're dealing with a
virus that's similar to one that's
already known and you know how its
transmitted there would be a lot of
things to go check before you just say
it's airborne I would be very suspicious
protective gear in pandemic so if you
see
not lately I have a rational fear of
dying this goes up and over hope you
feel happy this is obviously the
military and not CDC but the personal
protective equipment is similar to what
we use we have coveralls as well there
there Tyvek they're impervious to water
and other fluids and that face shield
keeps you from sticking your dirty
fingers in your eye or in your ear you
know whatever the case may be this looks
similar to what we wear in the field now
let's take a look at ET Elliot thinks
its thoughts
no Elliot fears his feelings the part
where they decontaminate before coming
in doesn't make a tremendous amount of
sense you want to decontaminate coming
out and I've I've never been
decontaminated with fog it's usually a
chemical shower to make sure that you
get you are decontaminated if you get
more information with swans in these
hoses would technically be connected to
some sort of a fan that would draw air
through a filter and put clean air into
their hoods I don't see the hoses
connected to anything not a respirator
or anything you can imagine I'm not
saying it's real
there's no cover-up an alien landing on
the earth with its own set of viruses
that doesn't bother it that could just
you know wreak havoc on a community I
would be there in a heartbeat because
that would be the coolest thing ever
just imagine what kind of neat viruses
you could find in an alien you might
even get to name him that's how cool
that would be the plague in house
[Music]
that's a little ahead and call CDC tell
him what he had a patient with the
plague yeah I mean there's cases of
plague it's mostly bubonic throughout
the southwest but he's in there knowing
this patient has the plague and he takes
out a syringe that's been in the room
with the patient and he pulls the cap
off with his mouth and then he withdraws
a sample and hands the sharp to a
colleague which is something you don't
do a needle or scissors or pointy
forceps even broken glass we call sharps
and typically in the work that we do in
the labs sharps is handled by pretty
much just one person you'd never see a
hand off of a needle like that so that
part was bad Oh No where'd it go where'd
it go here's another zombie movie World
War Z absolutely getting blood in your
mouth as a way to get an infectious
disease bodily fluids coming into
contact with mucous membranes do you
notice that he stood on the edge he
knows that he's been exposed and a lot
of people that work with these viruses
myself included if we have an exposure
we're not going to keep it quiet we have
a responsibility to the public will self
isolate we'll make sure that we're not
sick and if we are sick will go into
isolation we certainly wouldn't stand on
the edge of a building waiting to throw
ourselves off but you know you get the
idea
decontamination in the Andromeda Strain
we start decontamination and
immunization procedures now
[Music]
that's completely science fiction and
nobody in their right mind would let
themselves get cooked to the point where
their outer layer of epithelium has
turned to ash I mean that's the
definition of you know a giant sunburn
we face quite a problem out of this in
fact the human body one of the dirtiest
things in the known universe hard on the
taxpayers isn't it the way we burn up
uniforms and a lot of the clips that
that we've reviewed today you see this
decontamination process occurring before
they go into an infectious area or into
a lab and it's always just the opposite
for us do you want to clean yourself off
before you come out into an area where
the virus isn't martial law the crazies
[Applause]
we don't force people into treatment
facilities we try to coax them in there
we don't have any regulatory authority
where we can arrest people and throw
them in a cage or anything like that
aside from the separating the people
part temperature is a good way to
identify someone with a fever and is a
common practice one of the things that
was incorrect here is that they were
actually sticking the thermometer probe
in the ear that would never happen you
don't touch the individual because
you're just transmitting from one person
to the next what they used is handheld
thermometers and they pointed at your
temple and they'd hold it a few inches
away and they'd get a reading that way
that's not correct she's being wheeled
through they're seeing bloody Gurney's
being passed by and isolation facilities
are typically more of a hospital care
type of setting it's it's not going to
be under armed guard you wouldn't be
left to let your imagination run wild
and there would be some explanation as
to what's going to happen and how you'll
be cared for it's going to be alright
we're going to be okay let's look at a
similar scene in I am Legend
[Applause]
[Music]
if there was some way to detect an
abnormality that was a symptom of
infection in the eye that that's why
they'd be using that they're not
touching the individual with the actual
scope although their hands are all over
people and it's a giant crowd no good
okay
I am the Tina Turner puppet nothing I'm
ordering you to scan her again
Skinner again
[Applause]
it's clear this is obviously fiction
after that we would have done many more
scans to to make sure that she was in
fact negative these kinds of scans the
temperature and the eye thing that you
saw in this clip can detect symptoms of
infection they can't really definitively
say that you are infected what am i
doing there are some mechanisms now that
are more rapid than just your
traditional pcr that can turn around
test results very quickly but they're
not on site kind of things it's it's
requiring some sort of a blood sample
that's taken back to a lab so just
simply scanning them can't tell you
basically anything other than they're
feeling sick you'll always want to
follow up a scan like a temperature with
a blood test to identify that that
person is either infected with Ebola
Marburg feel a virus or it's something
else
zombie bite the girl with all the gifts
[Music]
yeah that was quick you may have got a
pretty decent-sized dose of virus in
whatever infection mechanism you just
encountered but it takes time for the
virus to locate the target cell inject
its own RNA or DNA into the cell and
then disseminate throughout the body
generally speaking it doesn't happen in
10 or 15 seconds the doctor picks up a
shard of glass and starts stabbing one
of the zombies in the head presumably
getting fluid in the cuts in her hand
and she didn't get infected you can't
have it both ways
or maybe she's one of those immune
people emphatically not another zombie
virus in twenty eight weeks later
kissing is a great way to get a virus I
mean there's no question about that but
again it wouldn't happen that that
quickly incubation periods for some
viruses can be days weeks or even months
I love the movie but it's still it's
still fiction here's more protective
gear again in SNL
often our stars to the Ebola in our
everything no you wouldn't be able to
have a relationship that having to dress
that way all the time that would get old
she wants to have sex
hell no levels of infection pandemic is
little too the conversion begins level
three patient secretes I've never seen
an isolation ward look like this there
is some level of security and it's
mostly to keep people out you keep
people that are suspect cases separate
from people that are confirmed cases and
here's level four look at these two they
come together in love but the first one
to wake up will kill it's not anything
like level one level two for the most
part what you've got there's a tent or
let's say a hospital ward that's
probably filled up pretty quickly and
you're not going to have the luxury of
having that kind of space robot lab in
resident evil at the CDC there are
robotic machines you'll have things that
just it moves it under and it dips and
it moves it under and it dips and that's
the robot part of it is we call it the
robot but it's not you know the Robbie
the robot kind of thing it's more of an
automated extraction machine
yeah we don't use glass vials in the
high containment laboratories for that
exact reason although I suspect that was
done intentionally blood tests from the
thing we're gonna draw a little bit
everybody's blood we're gonna find out
whose the thing will do you last now I
hate it when my flamethrower doesn't
work there's visible blood tests best
example is malaria you can look at a
blood sample under a microscope and
actually see the parasite infecting the
cell to have a reaction like that though
where the blood jumps out of the petri
dish and runs away I mean it's cool but
this is pure sci-fi the lab in the hot
zone no one goes into the level-4 alone
I'll be standing you head to toe
for anything that could contaminate
particles in all right just breathe
breathe through it what are you doing
I'm checking your pupils signs of panic
entry and an HCl if we're talking to
people we usually say that the HCL or
the high containment lab if you were
panicking like that putting the suit on
the chances are you would never go
inside you've got a continual flow of
fresh air and it's it's not panic
inducing no we don't ever call it the
hot zone it's the lab I would like to
point out though they didn't
decontaminate going in that part they
got right conclusion I guess the idea of
a pandemic and really bring out the fear
and the panic in people but they tend to
be not nearly as uncontrollable as
Hollywood makes it seem a lot of the
work that the CDC does is to make sure
that disease outbreaks like this don't
ever get to the stage of a global
pandemic viruses that you've seen in
these clips are basically Hollywood
fiction and the real life viruses that
are out there are hardly ever if at all
as fast-acting is what you've just seen
in these clips
thank you
[Music]