Prejudice and ignorance, arrogance and fear, institutional constraints, high-level pressure … … When death strikes, the parties are still lucky and hesitant, trying to get away with it for their own selfish interests.
This article has nothing to do with HBO’s new drama Chernobyl, but a drama review of The Hot Zone, a limited drama jointly produced by National Geographic Channel and Fox 21.
Poster of Blood Plague
Blood Epidemic consists of six episodes, which mainly tells the story of how the United States avoided an Ebola virus infection in 1989. It is adapted from the best-selling book of the same name published in 1995. Both books and plays are based on real people. Stephen King, a famous thriller writer, once said after reading the first chapter of Blood Epidemic, "This is the most terrible thing I have ever read in my life. The ward after death may make people doubt the nature of God and let unbelievers see the nature of nature. "
English version of Blood Epidemic
In recent years, Ebola outbreaks have been breaking out on the African continent. Just as the "Blood Epidemic" was broadcast, countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda once again reported their new Ebola cases to the WHO.
The latest epidemic event that caused worldwide concern about Ebola virus was the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa in 2014, which swept through Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and other African countries, and spread to the United States, Spain and other European and American countries. On December 17th, 2014, WHO announced that there were 19,031 cases (including suspected cases) of Ebola virus infection in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, among which 7,373 people died.
Stills of "Blood Epidemic", which restored the first Ebola outbreak in Africa in the 1970s. At that time, the epidemic spread rapidly due to the lack of disinfection of medical devices.
At that time, there was a WeChat official account article that spread widely in the circle of WeChat friends, detailing the past events of Ebola virus ravaging the world from 1960s to 1990s. As a writer, the author always had some impressions of the articles he had read, so when I watched the first episode of Blood Epidemic, I was puzzled. It turned out that both the article of WeChat official account’s 100,000+and this drama came from one source.
The simplified Chinese version of "Blood Epidemic"
Here we still have to outline the basic situation of Ebola virus. In 1976, Ebola virus was discovered, and it was named after the initial outbreak of the virus — — The Ebola River in West and Central Africa. It is the first filamentous virus and the only circular virus discovered by human beings. It is a species that ruthlessly extinguishes life and is known as the "blackboard eraser of life". The mortality rate remains high from 50% to 90%. A virus that has been continuously tracked, but its storage host has not yet been found; A virus that can spread across species; A virus that can survive in water for more than three days without a host and still infect the host; A high-risk virus that can spread in the air and has a biological protection level as high as 4 (AIDS is 3, SARS is 3).
Stills of "Blood Epidemic", the restored biosafety level 4 laboratory in the play.
The United States and Canada announced the development of Ebola vaccine in 2014 and 2018, and the State Food and Drug Administration of China also approved the new drug registration application of "recombinant Ebola virus disease vaccine (adenovirus vector)" in October 2017. However, the efforts made by global medical workers do not mean that Ebola virus has been "conquered" by human beings, and there are still many difficulties and pain points in its vaccine development. This is why the Ebola epidemic will continue to recur.
Only by understanding the viciousness of Ebola virus can we understand the horror of Blood Epidemic, which is just like the nuclear leakage in Chernobyl, and it is difficult for ordinary people to deal with it. Quoting from the book is — — There is only one flight between civilization and virus.
The stills of "Blood Plague", the picture above shows the Jaax couple in the play, and the picture below shows a tribute to the real Jaax couple at the end of the play.
When the book came out in 1995, director ridley scott, who is famous for blade runner and Alien, wanted to adapt the book into a movie. However, in 1995, the movie Outbreak starring dustin hoffman and Morgan Freeman disrupted the plan, and the adaptation of the film and television drama Blood Epidemic ran aground for more than 20 years.
In the stills of "Horror Zone", a vaccine for treating the mysterious virus was found in the film, but in reality, there is still a long way to go to conquer the Ebola virus.
Fortunately, a good meal is not afraid of being late. The "Blood Epidemic" broadcast in 2019 is still reminding all countries in the world that we must not be lucky in dealing with the sudden plague.
Perhaps, for Americans, the Ebola outbreak that happened in 1989 was "lucky". The strain named Reston was found in a group of cynomolgus monkeys imported from the Philippines to Reston, Virginia, USA. This virus has a high mortality rate for monkeys, but it is not fatal to humans.
Stills of Blood Epidemic, monkeys infected with Ebola virus Reston type.
However, the crisis still exposed the shortcomings of the United States in dealing with infectious diseases. Although scientists from the US Army Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRID) are trying their best to stop the Ebola outbreak, some senior officials in USAMRID also think that military scientists have overreacted, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is fighting for jurisdiction, and the owners of those monkeys, the board of directors of a private company, want to cover up the truth.
When you watch this drama, as an ordinary person, you will feel some kind of anger, because many people with decision-making power in the film first think of their own department interests and personal grievances. They fantasize that people will make irrational actions against the epidemic, and this concern is far higher than the estimate of the severity of the epidemic. This has to be said to be an irony.
Stills of "Blood Epidemic"
No matter at the end of the book or at the end of the play, the same passage appears — — The emergence of AIDS, Ebola and other rainforest pathogens is the natural result of the destruction of the tropical biosphere. Tropical rain forest is the deepest species storage pool in the world and the largest virus storage pool in the world. In a sense, the earth is starting an immune response to human beings. Nature has its own means of self-balance, and the rainforest has its own means of protection. Aware of human erosion, the earth’s immune system began to play a role, trying to eliminate the infection of human parasites in its own way.
"Blood Epidemic" took six episodes to explain clearly the horror of Ebola virus, but did not understand whether ordinary people can have enough right to know when a possible outbreak of pandemic strikes. While Hollywood writers lashed the Soviet Union’s top management with Chernobyl, they gently put down the whip to American policy makers. This has to be said to be another irony from outside the play.
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