Within the field of epidemiology, Dr. W. Ian Lipkin is known as a "master virus hunter," a cool-sounding moniker earned from more than three decades of lab work on identifying and curbing a wide range of infectious diseases from West Nile virus to SARS.
In late 2008, the esteemed scientist added movie adviser to his resume, when he was approached by the director Steven Soderbergh to advise on a film that would presage a global pandemic brought on by increased globalization and the incursions of deforestation on wildlife. To make the movie Contagion, Dr. Lipkin and his team created an imaginary virus and hued closely both to science and his experience of witnessing pandemics. "Is this fiction? Yes. Is it real? Absolutely," he wrote in 2011.
These days, Dr. Lipkin's name has reemerged in mainstream media. Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, he and his team of scientists at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University have been advising China on how to combat the epidemic, which to date has killed at least 909 people and infected more than 41,000. The film, meanwhile, has enjoyed a resurgence on streaming platforms, with viewers noting eerie similarities between the fictional virus and the recent coronavirus.
Gothamist reached out to Dr. Lipkin, who recently came back from China and is currently under quarantine as per new federal rules, to ask him about his work on the latest coronavirus outbreak and to revisit his role in the making of the now-prescient film.
You were just in China. How are scientists tackling the outbreak?
Chinese scientists are working on several fronts: building diagnostic tests for infection, tracking the evolution of the virus over time, creating and testing vaccines, and testing drugs.
There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in New York City to date. Given the large population of Chinese New Yorkers and international travelers, does this surprise you?
We have been fortunate. Perhaps the virus was unable to qualify for Global Entry status.
Dr. Lipkin in February at the Guangzhou airport waiting to fly to Beijing.
There's been a marked increase in the number of New Yorkers wearing face masks and stories about Chinese restaurants seeing a dramatic drop in customers. How worried do New Yorkers need to be? Do masks really help people avoid getting infected?
Travelers from China are screened at borders. I returned from a trip to Guangzhou and Beijing on Tuesday, February 4th. After interviews and temperature screening I was placed into isolation for two weeks. These types of measures are inconvenient but provide an effective barrier to importation of this virus. I’m more worried about the xenophobia associated with this virus than bona fide infection. As soon as I’m released, I’m going out for dim sum.
The movie Contagion, on which you served as a technical adviser, was recently one of the top 10 movie rentals on Apple iTunes. Can you tell us again the inspiration for the movie? Could you envision a situation as potentially bad as the one depicted in Contagion?
Scott Z. Burns wrote a brilliant script. Steven Soderbergh directed a brilliant film. I’m not surprised that Contagion has re-emerged. Legend has it that the idea for a movie about pandemics began with a discussion about the risks associated with people dipping into a communal candy bowl on the set of an earlier film. Could we see a pandemic as bad as the one depicted in Contagion? It’s possible but unlikely. We are working to ensure that we won’t.
You’ve talked about how the film revealed vulnerabilities in the public health crisis management system. Almost a decade later, what's changed?
Our technologies for rapid identification of infectious agents have improved. However, funding for public health infrastructure has not. Agencies like the CDC and the NIH are underfunded.
A vaccine is still being projected as being a year away. Why is that timeline still so long given scientific advancements? Do you think it can eventually be sped up to four months, like in the movie?
The process of safety and efficacy testing remains a challenge. I’m optimistic that we will see enhancements that shorten the timeline.
Were any of the lab scenes in Contagion based on your lab at The Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia?
Yes. The equipment, soundtrack, liquid nitrogen storage, animal facilities were based on labs at Columbia. The high level containment facility was based on labs at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and USAMRIID (United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases). Kate Winslet and Jennifer Ehle both spent time in the lab. If acting doesn’t pan out we’d happily recruit them.
In the movie, we find out a bat and a pig are essentially responsible for the outbreak, in conjunction with a chef who did not wash his hands — do we know yet where this coronavirus began? Along those lines, do you think wildlife sold in live animal markets for food should be banned?
The latest data suggest that an endangered mammal, the pangolin, may be the source of the new coronavirus. My colleagues and I have been working to shut down wildlife markets for decades. Perhaps the silver lining in this outbreak is that we finally get the traction needed to achieve this goal.
A pangolin
The death of Dr. Li Wenliang was another tragic casualty of the disease, and it echoed the death of the Kate Winslet character, who plays the CDC officer, and underscores the movie's theme that doctors and public health care workers are the heroes in all of this. How did you react to the news of his death, and what kind of precautions do you and your team members make when you travel to centers of viral epidemics?
A tragic loss. During the SARS outbreak we lost another brilliant and dedicated public health worker, Dr. Carlos Urbani. The physicians, nurses and other staff who care for patients are at higher risk than others. They are the true heroes on these outbreaks.
We’ve been told that your team is working on developing a test that could detect the Wuhan coronavirus in asymptomatic patients. Can you tell us how this test differs from the ones currently being used by health officials and what kind of difference it can make in containing the disease?
Our tests will detect not only the Wuhan coronavirus but also other viruses that cannot be distinguished based on symptoms alone. No test is infallible. If the coronavirus test is negative and the other virus test is positive we have more confidence that the coronavirus test was accurate. It may also lead to a treatable diagnosis, as in influenza.
If you were to be an adviser on another movie about another outbreak, what other aspect of your work or public health would you like to see dramatized on the big screen?
I’m increasingly concerned about rumors, misinformation, sexism, racism and other forms of xenophobia that circulate like viruses in social media. Let’s tackle those threats to peace and democracy.
