At the end of the 2011 movie Contagion, which depicts the spread of the MEV-1 pandemic, Dr Ellis Cheever, a director of the Centers for Disease Control, receives the eagerly awaited vaccine along with other government VIPs and their immediate families.

Cheever had recently married his fiancée in an ethically dubious move to make her eligible for the first round of vaccine distribution. Although she expresses misgivings about receiving the vaccine before nearly all other Americans, Cheever dismisses her doubts by stating that he is “just taking care of everybody that’s in my lifeboat.”

The scene sharply contrasts with a comparable moment from the 1950 movie Panic in the Streets about the spread of plague (Yersinia pestis) in New Orleans. In this earlier film, another public health employee, Dr Clinton Reed, can save his wife and son by having them flee the city before potential mass panic when the public learns about the outbreak.