The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

In a lab at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Joe DeRisi has developed a weapon for hunting viruses, the Virochip. In 2003, he reads about an outbreak in China. When he receives a sample of lung tissue in a FedEx delivery, he figures out that a new coronavirus killed the lung’s owner and finds that the virus is SARS. DeRisi offers to let the CDC use his chip to target the pathogen. He knows that the CDC is surprised by his lab’s speed. He starts getting invitations, including one to speak to “The Jasons.”

DeRisi speaks to 150 men, most of whom wear military outfits. Everyone in the room has a nametag that says Jason. He explains how the Virochip works: It can detect traces of virus so small that he doesn’t need to grow more of it to examine it. (A virologist normally must find a trace of a virus and then grow more of it just to have enough to study and interact with.) He explains that the coronavirus originated inside a bat.

The World Health Organization (WHO) publishes a SARS report. A Chinese doctor who visited Hong Kong for a wedding later contracted SARS and died after infecting five people at a hotel.