It's roughly based on Nipah virus as it's shown originating with flying foxes (large fruitbats), infecting pigs on a pig farm built near the jungle, and then to humans. HenipavirusThe unrealistic part is that "patient zero" was a customer in a restaurant. More realistically, and actually what did happen in real life, was that pig farm workers got sick and died. No pork-eating customers did, because it's not terribly likely that this kind of virus would survive being at fridge and room temperature in a dead pig for days. And even if it did, you would STILL expect the pig farm workers, slaughterhouse workers, and chef to have been much more heavily exposed than 1 customer who briefly touched the chef while taking a photo. It's sort of like reverse "plot armour" where in this case the writers wanted the spectacularly dying victim to be an attractive, rich, white woman. Plot Armor - TV Tropes