Rant: The Oral History of Buster Casey

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D. (Epidemiologist ): Modern society has struggled with the issue of superspreaders since Mary Mallon refused to modify her behavior. Because "Typhoid Mary" insisted on working as a cook, she spent the last twenty-three years of her life quarantined on New York's North Brother Island. More recently, in 1999, The New England Journal of Medicine reported a nine-year-old boy in North Dakota whose lungs held unusually deep pockets of tubercule bacilli, infecting his family and fifty-six schoolmates while the boy himself appeared to be in perfect health. In a similar case from 1996, the Annals of Internal Medicine documented the post-surgical intensive-care unit of a hospital where an outbreak of antibiotic-resistant staph infections was traced to colonies of Staphylococcus aureus deep in the sinuses of a seemingly healthy medical student.

Neddy Nelson (Party Crasher ): You ever heard of the Emergency Health Powers Act? It was put in place by that president, right after the September 11 fiasco, remember? Did you know that act allows the government to brand anyone as a public-health menace, then lock them up for the rest of their life? You ever hear of due process? You think you're going to get a trial by a jury? Are you kidding?

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: In rural China, the social stigma associated with leprosy prompted many of the infected to hide their condition. In response, the government offered a cash bounty to anyone who could report a leper, thus forcing the infected into treatment and eliminating the disease from the country.

In India, where a more democratic form of administration prevents such a program, cases of leprosy remain common.

The Emergency Health Powers Act simply enables the federal government to suspend all state and local powers, seize property, and quarantine populations in order to effectively deal with any infectious agent.

Hudson Baker: Amber saw getting infected as the ultimate commitment. Like her and the guy would be doomed to be with each other. Looking back, she figured a brush with death would make her really enjoy her life. Like she would feel more alive. Regular people would feel sorry for her, or some might be afraid or grossed out, but Amber just saw that all as added attention.

Amber said it would stop her from boosting peaks. She really wanted to live a real, alive life. I mean, it's really hard to explain.

From the Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: The term «bogeyman» is derived from "Boney," the British derogatory nickname for Napoleon Bonaparte. Over time, the name evolved into «boneyman» and later "bogeyman," but it was always used as a threat by the British in order to keep their children obedient.

Hudson Baker: Amber and me, she wanted us to double-team Gregg Denney. That's the night I didn't get in his car. I let her go alone.

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: As was most likely the case with Buster Casey, an asymptomatic, infectious carrier tends to be immuno-compromised by a previous illness. For example, one massive superspreader of Coronavirus, commonly known as SARS, suffered from a pre-existing kidney condition which allowed the patient to incubate and transmit huge amounts of the virus.

Gregg Denney: Some bitch gets herself knocked up and says she wants to have my rabid baby. She wants to see, can she go all the way to a baby without curing her infection. I don't know what you're talking about.

Hudson Baker: Amber was always telling me, "Rant Casey is the father of my rabies…" Like Amber met him and knew him and everything. Their love was, like, sealed with a kiss.

Gregg Denney: Maybe I put babies inside some daytime bitch, but, no, I never had the rabies for real. I only let on I was infected, to keep me in clean tail.

Hudson Baker: Amber was living with Gregg Denney by then. She expected her baby to be, like, part man, part animal. Like, one time she told me, "I'm taking human evolution one giant step backward…"

Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: As with the Rant serotype of the Lyssavirus, most modern epidemics have «jumped» from animals to human beings: SARS being a form of bovine Coronavirus, or cattle "shipping fever"; Creutzfeld-Jakob disease being the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or "mad cow disease"; and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome most likely being derived from the simian immunodeficiency virus.