CONTAGIOUS

With the new influenza virus outbreak classified as a pandemic, and hundreds of thousands already dead, will a vaccine be available in time to save the rest of mankind?
Dave Samuels and Bridget Montauk gave up their medical practices to begin a study to try to find a cure for this new virus, which was unlike any that the biomedical community had ever experienced. Dave had the first recorded case of the virus in a young male patient named Noah, who had just returned from a trip to Nepal with his parents. Rhesus monkeys were to be their study subjects. However, when they arrived from Asia, they found them infected with the same virus that Noah had. In their quest to find a vaccine, they encountered a long, windy road fraught with unusual coincidences and challenges. They both lost many close relatives and friends over a short period. With their exposure to the virus on a daily basis, did they have the antibodies necessary to protect them to continue their study?
A major pharmaceutical became aware of their having isolated the possible source of the virus, and offered them a huge sum of money, so that they could begin their own clinical trials. Dave and Bridget, who along the way became romantically involved as well as being study partners, had to choose between lives of recognition for finding this new virus, or sell their knowledge and the virus itself. They would never have to work another day in their lives if they accepted the offer, and could travel the world doing whatever they wished. Alternatively, they could use the money in part to provide free clinics for the administration of the vaccine to those who could not afford it. As they travelled through Paris, London, Kathmandu, and Nairobi, they made their life decision.