Dr. Erin Mears
Background
Dr. Erin Mears is an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia.
During the events of Contagion (2011) played by Kate Winslet
On Day 6, Dr. Mears arrives at the CDC and she and Dr. Ellis Cheever discuss the outbreak in Minneapolis. She arrives in Minneapolis and meets Dave and they get started working immediately. At the Minnesota Department of Health, Minnesota Health 1 tells the group there are 47 cases and 9 deaths as of current, but Minnesota Health 2 warns that the death and infection rate might be low due to it being the weekend and people are staying home. Dr. Mears brings up the terms fomites and after Minnesota Health 3 asks her to define it, she explains, fomites are transmissions from surfaces. Minnesota Health 4 doesn't want to release information to the press due to how the public might react. She brings up the time people were warned about Swine Flu and how it did nothing but scare people and reminds everyone that it is the largest shopping season of the year, Thanksgiving holiday. Minnesota Health 2 suggests they close down schools, but Minnesota Health 4 says people won't be able to work at the stores and will have to stay home with their kids. Dr. Mears goes to the dry erase board and writes down the Flu, Smallpox, and Polio with the numbers 1, 3 and 4/6 for each respectively. She explains the numbers represent the R-nought or the reproductive rate of the virus. On Day 7, Dr. Mears and Dave go to the offices of AIMM Alderson and interview AIMM Employee 1, AIMM Employee 2, AIMM Employee 3, and AIMM Employee 4. AIMM Employee 2 tells her he opened a package Beth Emhoff sent, AIMM Employee 3 tells Dr. Mears she and Beth did Pilates together before she got sick, and AIMM Employee 4 tells Dr. Mears he and Beth had coffee the day before she left. Dr. Mears asks if Beth had contact with anyone else and after AIMM Employee 1 tells her no, he is corrected and Dr. Mears is told Aaron Barnes had contact with Beth after she returned from her trip. Dr. Mears calls Aaron and she notices he has a cough, and asks where he is. When he tells her he is on a bus, she tells him to get off immediately. Aaron gets off the bus and is picked up by Dr. Mears and Dave. Dr. Mears asks Mitch Emhoff questions about Beth and when she mentions Beth had a long layover in Chicago, Mitch mentions that Beth once had a relationship with someone named Jon Neal and he figures out Beth was cheating on him. On Day 12, Mitch finds out he is immune to MEV-1, but Dr. Mears tells him Jory Emhoff can still get sick due to her receiving part of her DNA from her mother. Dr. Cheever calls Dr. Mears and asks her how she is doing. On Day 14, Dr. Mears wakes up coughing and after realizing she probably has MEV-1, calls the hotel and tells them to gather the names of all hotel personnel that she had contact with or cleaned her room. She then calls Dr. Cheever and tells him she is sick and he promises to get her help. Later, Dave checks on Dr. Mears and gives her, her phone and tells her they are trying to move her, but the nurses' union are calling for a work stoppage until protocols are in place. On Day 18, Dr. Mears is laying on a hospital bed as Shivering Man asks a Nun for another blanket, but the Nun tells him they are out of blankets. Dr. Mears tries to hand Shivering Man her jacket, but lacks the strength and dies.
