Contagion

Once again, for passengers traveling on Flight 1457...

...to Orlando, please take advantage of the boarding bag-check announcement.

[WOMAN 1 SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY OVER PA]

You'll pick it up at baggage claim in Orlando.

It's a really full flight today.

- Hey. Yeah, Jon Neal here.

You just had sex with me in a hotel and left without saying goodbye.

Yeah, it ended up being delayed, so... Sorry, I was panicking.

Well, if I don't get to see you again...

...I just wanted to say it was nice to see you again.

Yeah, it was nice to see you too. Heh.

Um, and listen, use that other e-mail I gave you...

...because that's the only secure one, okay?

Okay.

You all right?

Yeah, I'm just...

I'm just jet-lagged. I'm tired.

You should go home and get some rest. Hong Kong's a long way.

Attention passengers on Flight 5228...

- Oh, wait. - ...to Minneapolis.

Is that you?

Yep, that's me. They're calling my flight.

All right. Well, look, I'm really glad you called.

- Thanks. Bye. - Bye.

Please have your boarding passes out and ready.

Thanks.

- Good morning, Roger. Hey.

So you really kicked ass in that football pool, huh?

You need to give up on your Lions. Pick with your head, not your heart.

Yeah, thank you for the tip.

- Yeah. Hey, hey. Hey, doc, uh-- - Yeah?

I know you're busy. Uh-- I, uh--

- You got a second? - Sure.

- I got a medical question. - Mm-hm.

Uh, my kid's been, uh, having problems at school.

- Uh, attention deficit thing. - ADHD?

- Yeah. - He been diagnosed yet?

That's the thing. They want him to see someone.

I was wondering if you could take a look at him.

- I'm not really that kind of doctor. - Oh. Ha, ha. I didn't know. I just thought--

Maybe I can refer someone, though.

- Yeah? - Yeah. It's treatable.

- Okay. - We'll find someone, have them take a look.

- Shouldn't be a problem. - Okay.

- All right. - Yup.

- Thanks, doc. - You're welcome.

[CHATTERING AND COUGHING ON MONITOR]

Why doesn't anybody help him? Is he okay?

Read the posts.

Some say it was staged. An art project.

Some say the authorities wouldn't do an autopsy.

Covered it up.

- Covered what up? - We don't know.

Maybe Minamata disease. You know, from mercury in the fish.

There have been outbreaks in the past. Fishing industry suppresses it.

- "Industrial disease." - Yeah, but it's just one man.

- We don't know what happened. - Just one man on video.

Not everyone has the foresight to die in front of a camera.

The ones we don't see worry me.

Fish is shipped all over the world from there.

How many people read your paper over a plate of sushi?

Alan, we have almost no freelance budget anymore, and after H1 --

You wait. A few days, this will be tweeted and YouTubed all over the planet.

We don't wanna be the paper that cries wolf.

I'll show it to Hobart. He does our health stuff.

You're gonna give him my story? You're gonna give him my story, aren't you?

No, Alan, I'm trying to help you. It's just one man on a bus.

- I taped this meeting. - We need more information than that.

This story runs in the Chronicle, I will sue your ass.

Great. Okay, bye, Alan. Don't call me anymore.

Print media is dying, Lorraine.

It's dying. I'll save you a seat on the bus.

Hi, I'm Mitch Emhoff. I'm Clark's stepdad. Clark Morrow.

All right, I'll let him know you're here.

Okay.

He said he was feeling very warm in Mrs. Tatum's class.

I took his temperature again since I called. It was a touch over a hundred.

Okay. Well, first his mom and now the mighty Clark, huh?

All right, let's go get some soup for you and Mom.

Hope you feel better, Clark, okay?

Okay. Thank you.

Thattaboy.

We're gonna beat this thing down by Turkey Day.

I'm in Texas. I'll try it. I'll try anything once.

Ha, ha. That's not true.

Jory's going straight from the band trip to her mom's place.

And my job interview got pushed to next week.

I'm not really sure what that means. Hopefully nothing.

Hey.

My arm.

Come here, sit down, sit down, sit down. Watch your feet. Come on.

Come on. Come on, honey.

Okay, what happened? Did you take too much of that flu shit?

Honey? Beth, Beth. Hey, hey, hey. Honey, honey.

Beth. Jesus. Jesus. Sweetheart. Sweetheart. Hey, Beth.

Mom? - No, no, no. Uh-- Stay there, Clark. Don't--

Just go-- Go up to your room, honey. Uh...

Honey, honey.

Beth. Beth, can you hear me?

My name's Dr. Arrington. You're in the hospital.

You had a seizure this morning, Beth.

She have a history of seizures? - No, no, no.

Allergies? - Uh, I think she's allergic to penicillin.

She fall recently? Hit her head? - No, she came back from a trip--

What about drugs? MDMA? Ecstasy?

No. No, we don't do that.

Okay, let's get some help in here. Jesus. Beth. Beth.

Sir, you have to go. You have to go.

Let's get a line in her.

And give me 2 milligrams of Ativan, please.

So, um, despite all our efforts, she failed to respond.

- Okay. - And her heart stopped...

...and unfortunately, she did die.

Right.

- I'm sorry, Mr. Emhoff. - I know this is hard to accept.

Okay. I mean, so can I go talk to her?

Mr. Emhoff, I'm sorry. Your wife is dead.

I mean, I just saw her. We were just at home.

Is there somebody that we can call?

Someone who you think should be here with you?

I mean, we had dinner. We had pizza. She said she was jet-lagged.

You mentioned that she was away. Hong Kong?

We checked the latest bulletins.

The only things there were measles and H1 N1 ...

...and this was not that.

Then what was it?

We don't always know.

I mean, some people get a disease and live, some get sicker and die.

We're gonna have to notify the medical examiner...

...and they may request an autopsy.

Or if you wish, we can order one.

But I can't guarantee it's gonna tell you any more than I can.

I mean, my best guess is that this was either meningitis or encephalitis...

...and with encephalitis, we're in the dark a lot of the time.

If it was summer, I might say a bug bite, you know, West Nile.

- I don't know-- - Herpes can cause encephalitis.

She didn't have herpes.

- What are you talking about? - Okay.

What happened to her?

- What happened to her? - Okay, okay.

Mr. Emhoff, there are grief counselors...

...who are very helpful with this sort of passing, okay?

You might find some resolution there.

Now, I am sorry.

Hello?

Hang up the phone and call 911 right now. Right now. 911.

He said he had a headache, so I put him to bed.

I don't think he's breathing.

Clark. Clark.

Oh, my God, is he dead?

What we are hearing from Beijing is that the outbreak is contained...

...to the Chrysanthemum complex in Hong Kong.

Two deaths and 10 suspected cases.

How are we defining "contained?"

They're using the same protocols established for SARS.

They're quarantining the complex and screening for symptoms.

Kowloon is the most densely populated area in the world...

...and Hong Kong is a harbor.

It's going to spread.

Hong Kong is sending us blood samples.

We're also looking at samples from London.

Two clusters: one at a hotel, the other at a health club.

Five dead, encephalitis.

And there's the man on the bus in Tokyo.

- Three dead in that cluster. - Any of them travel to China or London?

We're checking.

Mr. Neal, I want you to stay with me here.

Can you hear me? Have you had seizures before? Mr. Neal?

- I want you to open your eyes if you can. He's breathing, right?

I couldn't wake him. I got home, I couldn't wake him.

We both woke up sick this morning.

Watch your head.

Hmm...

Well, the sulci are obliterated. Let's look at the base.

Oh, my God.

You want me to take a sample, or...?

I want you to move away from the table.

- Should I call someone, or...? - Call everyone.

Well, these things happen up there from time to time.

Meningitis in a college dorm after a swim meet...

...or West Nile in some summer camp near a lake.

I was reading that last summer they had an outbreak of enterovirus encephalitis.

A hundred and three cases, mainly children.

Well, it's probably too cold up there for that right now.

As of last night, there were five deaths and 32 cases.

There's a cluster in an elementary school.

That's the kind of thing you have to be prepared for.

It's gonna be all over the news.

What's your single overriding communications objective?

We're isolating the sick and quarantining those who we believe were exposed.

Okay, good.

As of this moment, you and I are attached at the cell phone.

If you need resources, call me. If you get into a political dogfight, call me.

If you find yourself wide awake, staring at the walls at 3 a.m...

...wondering why you took the job, call me.

I sure hope you packed something warmer than that.

We're looking at around zero with the windchill.

Don't want you to catch cold.

Do you wanna go to the hotel first, get situated?

I'd prefer to get started, if that's possible.