  We study the contact process on the complete graph on $n$ vertices where the
rate at which the infection travels along the edge connecting vertices $i$ and
$j$ is equal to $ \lambda w_i w_j / n$ for some $\lambda >0$, where $w_i$ are
i.i.d. vertex weights. We show that when $E[w_1^2] < \infty$ there is a phase
transition at $\lambda_c > 0$ so that for $\lambda<\lambda_c$ the contact
process dies out in logarithmic time, and for $\lambda>\lambda_c$ the contact
process lives for an exponential amount of time. Moreover, we give a formula
for $\lambda_c$ and when $\lambda>\lambda_c$ we are able to give precise
approximations for the probability a given vertex is infected in the
quasi-stationary distribution.
  Our results are consistent with a non-rigorous mean-field analysis of the
model. This is in contrast to some recent results for the contact process on
power law random graphs where the mean-field calculations suggested that
$\lambda_c>0$ when in fact $\lambda_c = 0$.
