Jiale Zhuang

2020/3/5
Writing 2
INVISIBLE THREATS

CHARACTERS:
Patient
Patient’s Friend
Doctor A
Doctor B
Host
Expert

SCENE I. HOSPITAL - December 25

[Patient friend enters the hospital]
PATIENT’S FRIEND What’s going on? Do you feel better?
PATIENT I don't know. I am very sick this time.
[Patient’s friend walks to the window and opens the window.]
PATIENT’S FRIEND Many people have been ill recently. It's time for the flu to break
out again in spring.
PATIENT That’s true, many colleagues in my office are coughing, sneezing,
and I even have a fever.
PATIENT’S FRIEND Have a good rest then. Hope you can get better soon.

SCENE II. HOSPITAL - December 30

DOCTOR A I felt so tired. So many patients.
DOCTOR B True, there are so many people in our hospital these days. They all
cough so badly.
DOCTOR A Fever and cough, these are symptoms of flu, but do you think this
is an ordinary flu?
DOCTOR B No, let's see the test report.
DOCTOR A This is a new coronavirus! We should publish the discovery as
soon as possible!
(Doctor A shouts in horror.)

SCENE III. NEWS STUDIO - January 25

HOST What do you want to say about the current epidemic situation?
EXPERT The epidemic has become very serious. We think the source of the
virus is related to a local market, which sells the products such as
paddy, bats, marmots, and snakes. Two very recent studies have
suggested bats or snakes to be the potential natural reservoir of
2019-nCoV. As of December 31, 2019, 27 patients have been
diagnosed with viral pneumonia. But this infection spreads very
fast, especially its outbreak happened to meet the Spring Festival,
which made it spread even wider. At present, we have confirmed
1975 cases of 2019-nCoV infection, 56 deaths and 2684 suspected
cases, some even confirmed overseas.
HOST Are you saying this is a highly contagious pneumonia that can
even cause death?
EXPERT Yes, among the 17 death cases we researched, there were 13 men
and 4 women. The median age of death is 75 years, so the
infections of the elder are more dangerous.
HOST That's too bad. Is there any good therapy or method to prevent it?
EXPERT We have no effective treatment at present. We should try our best
to improve personal hygiene, put on medical masks, have a full
rest, keep ventilation and avoid the crowd. We must be cautious
about this disease.

SCENE IV. FUNERAL OF PATIENT- January 30

PATIENT’S FRIEND (Sadly) Never thought of such a day.
[Suddenly, patient's friend began to cough badly.]
PATIENT’S FRIEND I think I must go to check my body as well. It is not too late to test for the
infection. Everyone should act now to stop any more infection so that fewer tragedies like you
will emerge.
Link of the Original Article: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25689