The recent and popular film ‘Contagion’, directed by Steven Soderberg, paints a pretty bleak and horrific picture of a deadly virus’s spread around the globe in a matter of days. But how close to reality is such a scenario? In a recent NY Times op-ed, epidemiologist W. Ian Lipkin (a technical consultant on the film) weighs in on the authenticity of the threat depicted in the film, factors contributing to the rise of global contagions, and describes current plans and policies to deal with a major, contagious disease outbreak.