sorry for not reading ALL the posts but the heroes were:

This movie shows the nature of humans, how we tend to panic instead of rationalizing over our choices. Fear is one of the few emotions that is completely capable of overwhelming someone, and has been even studied by many psychologists to cause momentary insanity.

The vaccination was a collaborative "win" for the scientific community. I'm pretty sure Jude Law's character was to poke fun at the anti-vaccination crowd, and to show the hypocrisy and greed that "truthers" often exploit.

The virus was just a subplot, if you ask me. It gave a reason for emotion, which is what this film shows at best.

Sure, but:

--I thought that the doctor who gave herself the experimental vaccine was brave, but also irresponsible: she was a vital part of the war against the disease, and if it hadn't worked, she would (by dying) have removed herself from that war. At a time like this, her life wasn't really hers to risk.

--Laurence Fishburne's character's act of giving his dose of vaccine to the kid was in part a penance, after having been shamed by the kid's father, and knowing that the father was completely right. He also got his girlfriend (fiancee?) to leave the infected area, inadvertently triggering a panic and a scandal. (In a way, what he said to her was unnecessary--he could just have said, "I want you here with me.") (He also was an important part of the war against the disease, but by the time the vaccine came out, the important part of the war was over, the disease was waning, and administrators can be replaced, so he wasn't IMHO being as irresponsible as the research doctor.)

I think that the film shows that there are lots of different ways of being heroic, and that many of them are somewhat mixed.

I have another couple of candidates:

--Elliot Gould's scientist, who disobeyed a direct order, given for important reasons of public health, and came up with the analysis of the disease. As someone (Fishburne?) says, he deserves either being thrown in jail or given a medal, or maybe both.

--There was a scene that flashed by in seconds: On the sound track, we hear a news report that nurses have been refusing to deal with victims of the disease because there have not been protocols established for handling and treating it. (A very reasonable complaint--certainly the SARS epidemic disproportionally affected medical personnel.) And the picture we see while we hear that report is of a nun caring for a patient, regardless.