Plague Doctor

"Due to the recent outbreak of new Legionella pneumonia in our city, martial law will be implemented throughout the city at 19:00 on August 3. Please return home as soon as possible, do not panic, and wait patiently for evacuation arrangements..."

On the TV screen, the male host looked very serious, his voice was solemn and generous, and he was full of confidence in overcoming difficulties.

In Shanhai City, no matter which TV channel you turn on, the signal is this breaking news report.

The Internet has been controlled, but mobile phones across the city are receiving such text message notifications, and there will be a new one every few seconds.

Notices started at two o'clock in the afternoon, and martial law would be implemented at seven o'clock in the evening. The time was very short, which made people feel confused and scared.

Some people immediately drove to leave Shanhai City, whether they were coming from out of town or local people traveling with their families, but without exception they found that all entrances and exits had been controlled and the entire city was blocked.

Some people wanted to go to the supermarket to grab supplies, but found that all supermarkets and large shopping malls were blocked and unable to enter.

In the news report, the host actually made it very clear.

Legionella is airborne, originates in the natural environment, and breeds in artificial water supply systems such as air conditioning and refrigeration units, hot and cold water systems. These systems discharge contaminated aerosols, which can lead to infection after being inhaled into the human body, causing symptoms such as fever, sweating, difficulty breathing, and coughing.

Therefore, places like supermarkets and gyms are where the spread is most serious.

All air conditioners in the city will be turned off immediately, and showers, humidifiers, etc. will also be stopped. Furthermore, all artificial water supply systems will be stopped. A major water outage will begin at 0:00 on the 4th in the city. The public is asked to store water, but it is best not to drink it. If you want to drink it, it must be left for ten hours. If there is water, do not approach the faucet. Please hold on until you evacuate and do not panic.

Prevention and control personnel will first take away infected and suspected infected people in the city area by area, and then evacuate other people.

"Please be patient and stay at home." The host repeatedly emphasized, "Don't panic."

This press release was obviously carefully considered to let the public understand that the situation was serious but not panic. It did not even say "outbreak" but "emergence" of the epidemic.

People who study medicine have heard more weird things. In the past, Legionella was not so contagious. What does "new Legionella" mean?

Not everyone understands Legionella, but the severity of these emergency measures is felt by everyone.

It has been six years since Li Mingqiu graduated from university. He is nearly 30 years old and is a programmer in an IT company.

As soon as the city-wide notice came out in the afternoon, people in the company were panicked. Everyone wanted to leave immediately, but the leader said that the guidance document told them to stay in the company as much as possible and wait for evacuation, and those walking on the street were the ones who wanted to return home as soon as possible.

"Those who have children to take care of can leave first. Others should think about themselves. The traffic outside is very chaotic and there are many people. If you go out and run around, you will be more likely to get infected."

This is true. Looking out from the window on the middle floor of this office building, pedestrians are rushing on the street, taxis are not stopping at all, and the traffic is on the verge of paralysis.

Because Li Mingqiu was not a local, nor was he married or had children, he lived in a shared apartment with others. There was nothing good about going back, so he chose to stay in the company.

Half of the colleagues stayed, and not all of them left because of their families, but some left because they wanted to grab supplies: “I don’t know how long it will take to evacuate. This germ can contaminate the water, and the mineral water was all gone when I got there. "Some people think it's no big deal at all: "It's just a trick to scare people."

The central air conditioner was immediately turned off. In the hot summer of August, it was extremely hot in the office, and the windows had to be closed as instructed.

"This epidemic may be more serious than SARS..."

"Yes, the state must have known that it was hasty, but it did it anyway."

The office was stuffy, and the dozen or so people left behind stayed in their seats. After the initial exciting discussion, they were at a loss and couldn't talk about anything.

At this time, Wei Xiaoru, who was chatting with a fellow doctor on the phone, put down her phone and said to the nervous people: "My classmate said that there are many kinds of Legionella. This one should be a new one, which is similar to the previous one." There are differences. To prevent Legionella, you need to open windows to maintain ventilation and not provide them with an ideal growth environment."

"Then we should close the window?" Zhang Dawei asked in shock. This was also the doubt of Li Mingqiu and others.

Wei Xiaoru recalled: "The main transmission carrier of Legionella is the aerosol mentioned in the news, but it can generally only spread to a radius of 200 meters with the wind and survive in tap water for more than an hour. Now we have to close the windows, The water needs to be cut off again, and my classmate said there are only three possibilities."

"First, this new type of Legionella has more diverse carriers, a wider range of transmission, and can survive longer in water; second, the CDC believes that Shanhai City has been contaminated everywhere... The first two are probably true."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Although they didn't know much about medicine, they all understood how serious this was.

Spread by the wind? Spread with tap water? People always need to breathe and drink water.

"The whole city has been polluted?" Zhang Dawei's face was full of anger. "How did it happen? Did you hide it again? Do you have to evacuate after it's like this?"

"My classmate said..." Wei Xiaoru was also at a loss, "This epidemic may develop very quickly, and even the country will be caught off guard."

Everyone was worried and anxious, but they could only wait. At seven o'clock in the evening, sirens sounded over the city, and martial law began.

They looked out of the office window and saw that the streets had become deserted, with only the disease control vehicles and vehicles that had appeared since the afternoon.

Yan vehicles drove past on the road from time to time, and teams of disease control personnel wearing white protective suits also passed by, catching individual people who were still wandering outside into transport vehicles and taking them away.

But the news has long said that contact with disease control personnel carries a greater risk of infection, so don’t deliberately go out and get arrested.

Moreover, they were not taken away from Shanhai City, but taken away for examination. If they were suspected of being infected, they would be isolated and treated.

After the siren sounded, another broadcast sounded over the city: "Please return home as soon as possible..."

The news also said that if you find anyone around you with suspected symptoms such as constant coughing, please stay away from the suspected patient immediately and call the help hotline. If you develop symptoms, please call the hotline immediately to receive treatment as quickly as possible.

Why remove the patient first and then everyone else?

Li Mingqiu pondered this problem all afternoon. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that besides the lack of manpower, the entire Shanhai City should have been polluted...

There is an incubation period for this disease. It cannot be seen who carries the germs and who does not. One patient can expand the scope of contamination and infect thousands of other people.

Therefore, we cannot evacuate casually. We must take time to let the patients reveal themselves first, so as to determine where Shanhai City is still clean.

Maybe only healthy people in clean areas will finally be evacuated...

Everyone was silent. Suddenly, Lin Mingda, a colleague who was sitting in his office chair and didn't talk much, coughed suddenly: "Cough, cough..."

All of a sudden, they all turned around and saw that Lin Mingda's face had become a little ugly.

When it was over, Li Mingqiu's heart tightened and his whole body seemed to collapse. Wei Xiaoru next to him also turned pale.

"Ah!" Zhang Dawei took a few steps back and said in panic: "Call someone, call quickly..."

"I, I..." Lin Mingda wanted to say something, but he only coughed more violently: "I, cough cough..."

Love the Plague Doctor.