Covid-19 Makes People Zealously Watch Pandemic Films

With the spread of COVID-19, quarantine and social distancing have become effective in various parts of the world. Watching program via internet streaming is a popular alternative for people spending their time at home.

KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI

A person holds up a mobile phone displaying the Netflix app. Netflix and Iflix are the two most popular streaming services for movies and TV programs in Indonesia.

A leading thread arises from the phenomenon. Public interest in films, television serials and even games with diseases as their theme is also exploding. People seem to be trying to shift their worries or seek solutions to the pandemic by these means.

The iTopChart website shows that Contagion ranks third in the category of Top iTunes Movie Rentals Charts in the United States, below Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019), as quoted in Jakarta on Wednesday (18/3/2020). In fact, iTunes movie download charts are usually dominated by the latest blockbusters.

“The sudden interest in everything epidemic and virus-related allows people an avenue which can help to process what\'s going on. It\'s well-known in psychology that the process of talking about traumatic events can help people \'get it off their chest\' and relieve stress,” said Robert Bartholomew, a medical sociologist. Contagion is a nine-year-old film created by Steven Soderbergh. This picture is about a mysterious virus called MEV-1 from Hong Kong that spreads in the United States and the world while killing millions of people within a short time.

The sudden interest in everything epidemic and virus-related allows people an avenue which can help to process what\'s going on.

The MEV-1 virus in Contagion has some eerie similarities to the COVID-19 epidemic in the real world. COVID-19 first appeared in China, which has Hong Kong as an autonomous region, in December 2019. Only within three months, COVID-19 has killed thousands of people all over the world.

The MEV-1 virus is described as coming from a combined virus from bats and swine. Like the virus in the story, COVID-19 is strongly suspected of originating in animals.

The other similar phenomena in the film also occur in real life today. The public has begun to be caught in fear and panic-shopping. Countries facing the impact of the disease also impose territorial quarantine.

SITUS ITOPCHART.COM

A screenshot of Apple’s iTopChart shows that Contagion (2011) ranked third in top iTunes rentals in the United States on Wednesday (18/3/2020), amid the increasing spread of Covid-19 in that country. The two top slots are taken by the recent releases, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and Jumanji: The Next Level (2019

Contagion was rated 55th in the British iTunes by the end of February after previously entering the big 10. Besides, Contagion occupied the seventh position in Singapore, the 24th in Australia, the 20th in the US and the eighth in Hong Kong at the end of February.

Business Insider Singapore reported that apart from Contagion, Outbreak (1995) became the ninth most popular title on Netflix in the US on March 13. Outbreak tells the story of an outbreak of an Ebola-like fictitious virus in Africa and later in the US.

Not only films, people are also watching Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak (2020), a documentary serial from Netflix. Released in January, Pandemic deals with how the authorities fight influenza and efforts to halt the next global epidemic.

People are also watching Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak (2020), a documentary serial from Netflix

“People have said the docuseries Pandemic came out at a perfect time, but in fact, we made it because some of us had seen the system tested in smaller ways and knew its vulnerabilities. We hoped to inform before, not after, another dangerous pathogen emerged,” said Sheri Fink, a journalist and executive producer of Pandemic.

Meanwhile, the interest to watch videos related to diseases on YouTube is also overwhelming. Extra Credits, an educational account, released in 2018 seven animation series on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the flu pandemic that caused millions of deaths.

“Since Jan. 1, the first episode has gained over 100,000 views and the series as a whole gained over 330,000 views, which is dramatic for a YouTube video two years old,” said Robert Rath, the writer of Extra Credits based in Hong Kong, adding that most of the audiences came from Southeast Asia.

KOMPAS/DIDIT PUTRA ERLANGGA R

A person watches a scene from the TV series Spartacus via the Netflix streaming service on Thursday (7/12/2016) in Jakarta.

Games get popular

It’s not just pandemic-themed films that are popular. Game downloads with the same theme are also burgeoning. The Plague Inc game from Ndemic Creations has been one of the most popular games for cell phones over the last eight years. Plague Inc is a game that enables the player to control a lethal pathogen that spreads through humans.

Ndemic Creations states it often saw a download spike during global news coverage of a disease, including both the coronavirus and Ebola outbreaks.

“Whenever there is an outbreak of disease we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks,” says the written statement.

However, Ndemic Creations reminded people that Plague Inc is a game, not a scientific model and that the current coronavirus outbreak is a very real situation.

The Google website also notes that searches for the Plague game and the film Contagion rocketed in January. According to medical sociologist Robert Bartholomew, the non-stop COVID-19 pandemic news cycle pushes people to the internet to make sense of their fears.

“People are now in the habit of going online and subconsciously reducing their psychic stress through a quasiritualistic practice that involves using a keyboard. In the past, people might have gone to church and prayed, whereas today in a more secular age they go online and discuss their fears as a form of collective coping," added Bartholomew. (AFP)