Question

What part does private industry play in fighting this epidemic?

Answer 1

You have not specified which epidemic so I will just generalize, the Private industry helps by developing vaccines, prevention measures and treatments or cures for an epidemic that may be going on such as for the Ebola virus epidemic.

Private industries were able to make a stable cultured version of the virus. Centers for disease control and Prevention (CDC) and the main health agency that tracks infectious diseases throughout the world called world health organization played a vital role in dealing with the outbreak. The sample of the disease was sent to Dr. Sussman (Elliot Gould) by two doctors. Sussman worked in a low-security bio lab and he told by the CDC powers that be to refrain from any research. He defies those orders and runs further tests on the samples.

Answer 2

Answer:

The correct answer to your question would be: They were responsible for making stable cultures versions of the virus that infected the world.

Explanation:

This question is regarding the situation depicted in "Contagion", the film that featured in 2011, from director Steven Soderbergh, and which counted with a really important cast of big-time actors and actresses.

In the movie, the situation portrayed initiates with a virus, meningoencephalitis (MEV-1), much like the H1N1, that starts to spread around the world thanks to human contact with infected people and with fomites (objects that are infected by a pathogen and that spread it around). In the attempt to stop the spread of the disease, and find a cure, it is found out that several laboratories had been working with bat cells and versions of the virus. In the end, one of the characters, Dr. Ally Hextal, decides to inoculate herself with the attenuated virus to test whether her vaccine is efficacious or not. When she does not contract the infection, the vaccine is declared effective and produced in massive quantities. What becomes aparent with the movie are two things: first, that patient zero in the film happened because the initiating character, Beth Emhoff, became exposed to a combination of bat droppings (the source of the virus) and pig meat. She contracts the initial infection and spreads it around. Second, that several private industries had been aready working on this virus, and had been on the lookout for possible cures and ways to use it.