As reality becomes surreal...

The fear is not only about the virus but also how humans respond to the challenge

In Ling Ma's novel Severance, an outbreak of Shen fever from Shenzhen in China turns New York into a zombie city and face-masks, designer ones for the rich, become the new normal. Dean Koontz’s The Eyes Of Darkness is getting renewed attention — the book mentions a deadly virus, Wuhan 400, which he described as a “severe pneumonia-like illness” that spreads attacking “lungs and bronchial tubes” and “resisting all known treatments”.

Steven Soderbergh's 2011 film Contagion tracks the outbreak of a virus from Hong Kong, which goes on to cause a pandemic and societal collapse. In one scene, Kate Winslet’s character,