Original date: 17th June 2020

Why did the storm have such an effect on the virus? A single evening and night of torrential rain and frequent thunder, and the outbreak shrank by half – then it carried on withering over the subsequent weeks until there were no new cases.

In fact, for the final few weeks the only cases were those who had got sickest, but even these people found an easing of their symptoms, recovering more quickly than those compatriots who had caught the virus months or years earlier.

The phenomenon drove scientists to take a closer look at the pathogen. Given its propensity to respond acceptably well to standard treatments, provided the medics worked around the clock to distribute treatment, little time or attention had been spent on pushing the boundaries of knowledge.

In contrast to the previous pandemic, which had shut businesses and killed people on a truly unprecedented scale, the new infection was deemed (by whom, it was never clear) to concentrate fatalities in an acceptable demographic. The present pandemic was more insidious, the death rate growing only slowly. But in the weeks leading up to the storm it had begun to kill ever more rapidly, and public dissatisfaction with current approaches began to boil over.

So the storm came at just the right time. Relief had set in, and time was found to turn attention to fresh research that might harness the curative powers of the weather. Alas, said research only begged further questions. The virus, under the microscope, appeared mostly inert since the storm, like a machine on standby. It could infect cells and reproduce, but it produced no symptoms in infected test mice. Purely by coincidence, one of the infected mice was used in another experiment, involving a maze, food incentives, and an electrified floor. Within hours of being mildly shocked, the mouse began to exhibit pandemic symptoms. Soon after, so did its experimental comrades. Eventual deaths were, if anything, greater than before.

On a hunch, a curious doctor discovered that the inactive virus was still widespread in the population, especially since social distancing measures had been abandoned after the storm. And it was only a matter of time before another storm hit…