The hidden brain team has felt a range of emotions as we watch the spread of coronavirus.
Like you, we've had moments of frustration and anxiety and fear.
Such emotions can play a big role in our response to a disease outbreak.
Another key factor, our ability to trust the guidance of public health experts.
We first explored this idea several years ago while working on an episode about an Ebola outbreak in Africa.
We thought we'd bring you that story today in the hopes that it may remind us that expertise, combined with authentic human connection can achieve a lot during times of uncertainty.
This is hidden brain.
I'm Shankar Vedantam.
In 1950, before, after he directed the film on the waterfront, Elia Kazan made another dramatic thriller, a movie called panic in the streets.
There's a reason you probably haven't heard of it.
It isn't a great movie.
Herewith recorded is the story of a silent, savage menace.
The events, incidents, and emotions of the people who were a part of it, who found time running out as they looked into the face of mortal peril.
The film tells the fictional story of a murder in New Orleans.
When the police investigate, they find the victim suffered from a deadly, infectious disease, a version of the plague.
Public health officials believe the killers may have contracted the disease as they carried the victim's body away.
What follows is a race to track down the criminals and halt an epidemic, a collision of law enforcement and public health.
If the killer is incubating pneumonic plague, he can start spreading it within 48 hours.
48 hours?
Yes.