While the main focus of the film Contagion was a modern day race to find a cure and control a lethal airborne virus, Miss Evers Boys was a historical look at the slow, plodding progress ( or deliberate lack thereof) to finding a cure for syphilis. The only thing these two films have in common is the horrific and painful representation of what can happen to a community when a communicable disease is left untreated. Because these two films are so vastly different, its interesting to examine the nurse-physician relationship within each: The role of the nurse has historically been a positon of subservience. Though the gap is less in modern times, in Miss Evers era, physicians have grand authority over the patients and demand respect and obedience from the staff. In contrast, nursing, though a highly respected career in Miss Evers time do not receive the same societal respect or financial compensation as physicians and they are reminded that their status and knowledge is much less than that of the physicians. This power imbalance creates the perception among nurses that their opinion is not valued. This of course, creates situations in which a nurses opinions are overridden or overruled, resulting in tension and frustration. This phenomenon was practically nonexistent in Contagion, when the nurses and physicians worked side by side as equals. However, in Miss Evers Boys, the nurse had no influence in changing the direction of the study. She was instructed to comply with the requirements and ask no questions and curiously, she obeyed. What she experienced was nothing short of coercion. Still, she wasnt tortured, nor blackmailed and she still had the free will to refuse to go along with the public health atrocity that was dubbed the Tuskeegee experiment.

Ethically speaking, the Tuskegee Experiment was completely immoral and Im not convinced that government ever intended to improve the life of African Americans, only study them. Denying penicillin, withholding information, lying about the treatments and performing risky procedures were all grossly negligent and unforgivable actions. Conversely, in Contagion, when the fictional MEV-1 virus shows itself, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control immediately scramble to identify the pathogen and develop a vaccine.

The two films here yet again are like magnets, completely opposite in the way treatment and medication for public health is portrayed. In contagion, when millions of people are dying and treatment is experimental, there is no feeling that the government is holding back treatment to an elite few based on race, gender or creed. Of course, in Miss Ever, there is a jarring lack of treatment, discrimination based on race and a sick sense of government corruption that goes on for decades.

These arent happy films, but necessary ones. These are films that make you think. Films not just about the spread of an infectious disease, but a look how a community comes together, falls apart, and then copes with the aftermath.

Resources:

Sargent, J. (Director). (1997). Miss Evers Boys [Motion Picture]. California: Warner Brothers Pictures

Tuskegee University. (n.d.). Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Web: http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/Story.asp?s=1207598