Contagion (2011)

Jennifer Ehle: Dr. Ally Hextall

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Quotes 

• Dr. Ally Hextall : We've sequenced the virus, determined its origin and we've modeled the way it enters the cells of the lung and the brain. The virus contains both bat and pig sequences. The dark green is pig, and the light green is bat. And here you can see the crossover event. Bat, bat, and pig, bat. And 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. These receptors are found in the cells of both the respiratory tract and the central nervous system. And the virus attaches to the cell like a key slipping into a lock. Somewhere in the world, the wrong pig met up with the wrong bat.

• Dr. Ally Hextall : It's still changing. It's figuring us out faster than we're figuring it out.

• Dr. Ellis Cheever : I thought you said once we could grow it, we could vaccinate against it.

  Dr. Ally Hextall : We tried using dead virus combined with atrophins to boost immune response.

  Dr. Ellis Cheever : And?

  Dr. Ally Hextall : No protective antibodies. A lot of dead monkeys.

• Dr. Ellis Cheever : Are we even close?

  Dr. Ally Hextall : If we even had a viable vaccine right now, we would still have to do human trials, and that would take weeks. And then we would have to get clearance and approval figure out manufacturing and distribution. That would take months. And then training survivors to give inoculations. More months, more deaths.

• Dr. Ally Hextall : We have to try a live attenuated virus.

  Dr. Ellis Cheever : Like with polio?

  Dr. Ally Hextall : Exactly. The only danger with a live virus is the possibility that it will revert to wild type and kill the host.

  Dr. Ellis Cheever : And when will we know about that?

  Dr. Ally Hextall : I'll ask the monkeys.

• Dr. Ellis Cheever : So we have a novel virus with a mortality rate in the low 20s, no treatment protocol, and no vaccine at this time.

  Dr. Ally Hextall : That is correct.

  Dr. Ellis Cheever : From here on out, I want no one working on this except at BSL-4. Last thing we need is for this to walk out of the lab on the bottom of someone's shoe.

• Dr. Ally Hextall : It's mutated.

  Dr. Ellis Cheever : Which way, better or worse?

  Dr. Ally Hextall : It's moved into an African HIV AIDS population. The Durban cluster is highly divergent.

• Dr. Ellis Cheever : Homeland Security wants to know if we can put a vaccination in the water supply, like fluoride. Cure everyone all at once.

  Dr. Ally Hextall : I'm going home now, Ellis. It's getting late. Merry Christmas.