Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs

by Mark Olshaker

Hospitals are already seeing shortages of critical drugs and supplies.

Most hospitals are running low or have exhausted their supply of N95 respirators needed to protect healthcare workers. An increasing number of frightened healthcare workers, including both doctors and nurses, are calling in sick. Their illness is fear, not infection.

Virtually every drugstore and pharmacy in the nation has had a run on Tamiflu and Relenza, and there are sporadic reports of break-ins and looting.

allegations of price gouging and black-market sales of antiviral drugs.

National unemployment soars above 25 percent, while certain industries can’t find enough qualified workers. Many automobile dealers are now open only on weekends for new car sales, and their service bays are nearly empty. The Federal Reserve lowers the federal funds rate to zero.

Food supplies are getting tighter and tighter worldwide, even on the grocery store shelves of America.

But word leaks out about when and where these vaccine clinics are being held, and they are overrun by masses of people seeking vaccination. Chaos prevails. Police, who are already short staffed because of cases in their own ranks, try to protect the vaccinators and the vaccines. Outbreaks of violence at these clinics are reported throughout the United States.

Despite these precautions, when vaccine does arrive, many locations are overrun by masses of people, and when the supplies are quickly exhausted, the crowds turn violent.

commuters realize they cannot avoid being breathed on. The streets are essentially gridlocked with private cars. The director of the Environmental Protection Agency warns of dangerous levels of air pollution.