Scapegoat, Superspreader, Slut: Promiscuity and the Myth of Patient Zero in Soderbergh's Contagion (2011)

Abstract: Steven Soderbergh's pandemic thriller Contagion (2011) remains a timely meditation on the global capitalist networks and quotidian, interpersonal interactions through which infectious disease spreads, with reviews and analyses of the film commending its scientific accuracy and chilling presage of COVID-19. The film's sexualized patient zero plotline demands further scrutiny, however. This essay first traces the evolution of the myth of patient zero throughout the twentieth century, documenting how it fuses the highly stigmatized concepts of scapegoat, superspreader, and slut into both a seemingly innocuous stock character and an established feature of outbreak narrative. Contextualizing Contagion 's infidelity plot through the myth of patient zero, this essay then critiques the film's patriarchal and homophobic impulses, encouraging us to reimagine our conceptions of risk, blame, and social connection.