Contagion medical consultant with coronavirus warns 'it can hit anybody'

A medical consultant on Contagion, the 2011 movie about a fictional pandemic, has now tested positive for COVID-19.

Dr. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University's Center for Infection and Immunity, spoke to Fox Business on Tuesday about the coronavirus pandemic and at the end of the segment revealed he just recently tested positive himself.

"I would just like to say on this show tonight that this has become very personal for me, too, because I have COVID as of yesterday," he said. "And it is miserable. ... If it can hit me, it can hit anybody. That's the message I want to convey."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Lipkin consulted on Steven Soderbergh's film Contagion, which has seen a resurgence in popularity over the past few weeks as it became uncomfortably relevant amid the pandemic. USA Today reports that "some Contagion scenes reflect Lipkin's own experiences in Beijing when he assisted the World Health Organization and the Chinese Health Ministry during the 2003 SARS outbreak in 2003."

Another adviser on the film, Tracey McNamara, recently told BuzzFeed News amid this increased attention, "I wish people had paid closer attention to it when the film came out, because it really was a warning to the federal government that this could happen and you need to prepare."

Lipkin also weighed in on President Trump's desire to have the county "opened up" by Easter, warning, "We really don't know when we're going to get this under control." Brendan Morrow