Beth's Affair (Dramatic and Situational Irony)
Beth has an affair with a former lover while in Chicago on a layover before going home. The irony of this event works on two levels. Firstly, we the viewer know that she is having an affair before anyone else does, because we see her make a phone call to the lover during her layover. This is an instance of dramatic irony. Secondly, as Erin Mears later discovers, since Beth Emhoff was patient zero, her affair in Chicago means that the virus was able to spread more rapidly throughout the country, as she surely transmitted it to her lover in Chicago.
Erin Mears's Death (Situational Irony)
Erin Mears's death is tragic and ironic, in part because she is called in to learn more about the spread of the disease in order to prevent it. Even though she is positioned as an authority on the transmission of the virus, she is not immune to it and proves to be just as fragile as any other human being. Her bravery and unflappability is part of what makes her death so ironic and so sad.
Sussman's Research (Situational Irony)
Dr. Sussman is ordered to destroy his cell culture samples, as he was called in as an external source for the CDC research. Ironically enough, Dr. Sussman disobeys that order, and in doing so is able to find a cell culture that allows the scientists to begin working on a vaccine. Had he followed orders, progress would have been stalled.
Not a Real Vaccine (Situational Irony)
When Dr. Leonora Orantes is kidnapped by Sun Feng and relegated to the small village, her ransom is set as early access to the new vaccine. She is released back to her employers after they deliver a batch of the vaccine, but on her way to the airport learns that the vaccine they sent is a fake. Ironically enough, rather than feel relief at having been released, Orantes goes back to warn the village, having grown attached to the people there and seen the moral ramifications of delayed vaccine dissemination.
