Chapter 4 Summary

The minister of health and other government officials meet to discuss the public response to what is widely assumed to be an epidemic of a newly emerging infectious disease. The officials are callous and sinister and eventually decide to use an abandoned mental hospital facility to quarantine by force all those suffering from blindness as well as all those who have been potentially exposed to this presumed disease. The minister of health determines that, to save money, the patients will be largely responsible for policing themselves and no actual medical assistance will be rendered during quarantine. The quarantine will last as long as necessary; perhaps the patients will be quarantined for the remainder of their lifespan.

The doctor and the doctor's wife are driven to the mental hospital and told to proceed inside. They are not escorted or assisted in any way. The...