David Halliday

Scientists now believe that the virus was present decades earlier, in the 1950s. in the flight to suburbia and the mass introduction of television. Tittering had slipped into the modern consciousness. Memories were now harvested to sell everything from soap to opera. It was the advent of the stand-up comedian and the news commentary. Everything was so funny. Reality is too complicated. I read that in a book I had gotten from the library.
It was called "Two P. M." The author maintained that we were all living in a fabricated world. Nothing was real. It had been created by past generations to placate us. In effect, most of mankind had been put into a medically induced coma. Until a vaccine could be found.