The process can be beneficial in mitigating the spread of a virus. In the 2011 pandemic thriller “Contagion,” Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) travels to meet with colleagues of Beth Emhoff, a woman who contracted a deadly new virus while overseas.
Mears asks questions about when the colleagues last saw and spoke with Emhoff, until hearing that one coworker — the person who picked her up from the airport — actually called in sick that day, prompting Mears to rush to meet the ailing man.
The fictional Mears is performing a real process called contact tracing, where people who have been in close contact with someone who has been infected with a virus are monitored for their own health and to prevent viral spread.