The scenario

Total suggested time: 5 minutes

The Z virus

This photograph depicted an Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch (EDLB) public health scientist, holding up a glass slide used for a run on a sequencing machine. Image courtesy CDC

For weeks, nations across the globe have kept close watch on the spread of a new virus spreading rapidly both within and across their borders.

Now, the World Health Organization has declared this “Z virus” a global pandemic.

There’s a lot scientists don’t know yet about the Z virus and how it spreads, and they’ve only recently figured out how to reliably test for it. But early indications are that it’s highly communicable and more lethal than the flu, especially since as a novel virus the human population has no natural immunity to it.

It’s Day One of the pandemic in the United States of America, and you have a job to do.


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