Josiah, I completely understand the money situation but at the same time if you knew the acting was bad, then you should had gotten different actors. Contact your local school and talk to the art/drama teachers. Put flyers at your local college for a casting call, get other friends involved who may be more believable.
Also at the end of the day your story has got to make sense in every possible way. There is no way that a "cure" could had been found in 11 days after this kind of catastrophe. You have got to think "if it did happen, how would it"? Just think for a second of the attacks on 9/11, remember how crazy it was for weeks after that, even if you were not in NYC you were still at a daze because of the fear... Imagine if 5billion died in 11days, how insanely crazy the world would be. The first thing you have got to think about is the story and just think as if it were real. You are a storyteller and within the story, as fictitious as the story may be, all of the parts have to make sense.
I give you props because you ARE working on your project. You AREfilming and that is a huge step.