THE THIN WHITE LINE is a history book about a future pandemic, combining historical detail such as facts, people and dates with dramatic firsthand accounts of people who survived these tragic times. Below are four of the many accounts included in the book.

Gregory Branch, PhD, World Health Organization
It’s October 6, the middle of the night and I’m in Toronto at an infectious diseases conference, and suddenly I’m jarred awake by the sound of my phone ringing. It was Margaret Redstone calling from Geneva to tell me she suspected that a highly virulent respiratory disease had emerged in southern China. . . .

Jennifer Chan, RN
The whole thing seems like a bad dream now. I was one of the new kids still figuring out how to find the bathroom. Three weeks later, I was in the middle of a pandemic, part of the so-called “thin white line". . . .

"Jane"
Behind us, a scuffling: Somebody had started coughing, and people were kicking and shoving him out of line, threatening to kill him if he didn’t leave. I shivered and kept my head down. If I was going to do this I had to stay focused. . . .

Sergeant Chuck Gordon, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry
We are a light infantry battalion, trained to operate on foot in urban environments. Our training focuses on flexibility, initiative and the ability to act independently. This made us a valuable asset for certain types of operations during the Pandemic, such as defensive operations and convoy escorts. For a few weeks, we stayed on base and prepared for potential deployment. And then one day the call came. . . .