The Premonition: A Pandemic Story

Bob Glass is a scientist who works for Sandia National Laboratories, and Laura Dean is his daughter. Laura studies the spread of viruses as part of a science fair project. She and Bob grow obsessed with pandemics. With his help, her idea about containment through isolation becomes a model that will eventually serve as a blueprint for social distancing.

A California health care official, Charity Dean is obsessed with infectious diseases and prior to COVID focused on tuberculosis. Dean is committed to her job, which compounds her exasperation and bewilderment when she finds herself at odds with the CDC. She’s unafraid of taking the lead to do what's right, as when she performs a biopsy on a TB patient in front of a frightened coroner who thinks she doesn’t have the stomach for it. Dean becomes 

Carter Mecher served as a member of George W. Bush’s pandemic planning team. He is a low-profile, intensely curious thinker who focuses on problem solving. His method is to create environments in which mistakes cannot occur. Carter becomes the leader of the group known as the Wolverines, who make recommendations to the CDC during the COVIC pandemic.

Before joining Carter and the Wolverines, Richard Hatchett worked in an ER in New York. In addition, he served on the pandemic planning team in the George W. Bush administration. He and Carter are kindred spirits who draw similar conclusions about the pandemic and the need to prepare for the next one.