The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

by Michael Lewis

Medicine had always felt to her a man’s world. Especially in the places, like here, where it touched government. It was then Charity Dean realized: the real problem is that this man is frightened. The douchebag is scared. She’d been around terrifying diseases most of her adult life and had made a pact with herself not to fear them. “If you’re a truck driver, you know you’re going to get into an accident sooner or later, so you just learn what to do if you are in an accident,” she said. “That’s how you get over the fear. You just accept that you’ll get the disease one day.” Men weren’t so accepting, she’d noticed, especially the big and supposedly brave ones. As a medical student she’d seen the fear—in the eyes of the New Orleans cops in the trauma center. “They’d haul in some guy with a gunshot wound, but when they found out he had hep C or HIV, they’d squeal and go take a shower in Clorox from head to toe.” Over and again she’d seen mesomorphs with crew cuts who would happily run into a burning building to save a dog turn uncertain and uneasy in the presence of disease. Airborne diseases in particular seemed to spook them. “That was the number one reason I could not get TB patients arrested,” she said. “The police would turn into these squeamish little girls. They’d sit in the car and let a nurse go get them.”

Fear, Gender, and Courage in the Face of Disease