Rise of the Planet of the Apes: A Cautionary Public Health Tale

[Maximillian Phillips]

 

Last night I saw the film Rise of the Planet of the Apes.  A baby chimpanze, Caesar, is spirited out of a drug testing lab by a kind-hearted bioscientist.  Why?  The chimp's mother was used to test a new drug that enhances brain function and repairs brain pathways damaged by injury or aging. Little Caesar inherits her drug-enhanced brain functions.  In brief, the baby chimp turns out to be hyperintelligent and liberates his fellow chimps from a great ape dumping facility run by a group of sadistic morons. 

About two minutes into the credits, we see how a man, an airline pilot, exposed to the drug, via aerosol dropplets ejected during a near-death lab worker's sneeze, goes on to infect and nearly wipe out the human race.  Of couse-giving rise to the planet of the apes. 

The film is replete with public health lessons ranging from ethics to pandemic response.  The spreading airline routes on the screen illustrate the transmission of the mind drug's deadly side effect across the the planet.

It is worth a look/rental.