Dr Ian Lipkin: Contagion movie made to prevent pandemic

The film Contagion was made in the hope it might prevent a future worldwide pandemic like coronavirus, the epidemiologist Dr Ian Lipkin has said.

Dr Lipkin was the scientific advisor for the film which nine years ago predicted a scenario uncannily like the current spread of Covid-19.

He told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "It is ironic. The reason we made this film was in fact to prevent something like this happening."

The film was released in 2011 but work on the storyline as to how a virus might spread had begun in 2008. At the time the film faced criticism over the speed at which a vaccine might be found, but he says this has now become reality and it could potentially be done in just over one year, instead of taking several.

You can see the Hardtalk interview in full on BBCiPlayer (UK only).