"Yeah. They think it could've been pretty bad."

Outside of virology journals, the event is recorded as "Novel Coronavirus 3422" after the year in which it was identified and it's talked about for approximately a week after the trains start again. Patient zero and her husband go on an obscure epidemiology streaming show to talk about it. The commodity price of copper bumps up, then creeps back down; people familiar enough with the pattern to time it make a little money, people who think they know when to time it but don't lose a little money. Shapto collects some federal compensation and gives everybody who was denied emergency transit appeals during the train stoppage 2,120 tap per inflation since the last time this happened. There are angry blog posts from people who missed funerals, weddings, conferences, vacations, interviews. There are replies saying "at least you aren't dead" and replies to the replies saying "no one died" and replies to the replies to the replies saying "even if it was just a cold, and they're saying it wasn't, you weren't going to show up to your friend's wedding with a cold, were you? ew!" and a derailed comment thread about how in Yvalta actually it's fine if you wear a mask and wash your hands while everyone's watching you wash your hands. Medical-themed cleaning shows see a tiny uptick in viewership, people watching things be sterilized half a dozen ways, watching greens pretending to be oranges suiting up in single-use layers.

In computer models, the virtual virus slaughters millions. Epidemiologists suck cough drops so they don't terrify themselves into the hospital.

Patient zero harvests a bumper crop of soybeans. They're all put through an irradiator on a conveyor belt. They're delicious.