“A different narrative structure is needed, and a new language. Piqued by their humiliation, scientists went on to furnish us with a vocabulary of flu – with concepts such as immune memory, genetic susceptibility and post viral fatigue. Couched in this new language – not a poetic language, perhaps, but one that allowed tou to make predictions, and to test them against the historical reports – disparate events began to appear connected, with other, once obvious links atrophied and died (no, it wasn’t the punishment of an angry god; yes, it was at least partly responsible for the subsequent wave of melancholy). The pandemic took on a radically new shape: the one we recognize today.”