Scott Z. Burns must get this one a lot: How did the writer of the 2011 Steven Soderburgh-directed drama "Contagion" experience the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic?
"We all were told by the scientists we worked with that it wasn't a matter of if there would be another pandemic; it was a matter of when," says Burns, during a recent video interview to promote his new Apple TV+ limited series, "Extrapolations." "Nobody told us that it was going to be six or seven years after the movie, obviously.
"But people need to remember Ian Lipkin, the scientist who I worked with on the movie was the person who sort of discovered the origins of SARS," Burns continues. "There have been more and more viruses emerging. And so it is something we need to be aware of, and, unfortunately, we tend to only focus on pandemics after they happen, rather than looking at what we're doing here on the planet beforehand to try and prevent them from jumping into the human population."
