"City health officer Dr. Ken Blatherman describes the mini-epidemic as a novel species of retrovirus, showing limited infectivity, and spread by an unknown vector," the talking head announces, hardly stumbling over the big words at all. (This is NN ...) "The fact that, so far, the viral infection seems limited to the city’s underclass indicates more that the conditions faced by the under-housed and underemployed"—translation: squatters—"lead to increased expression of the disease than that the source of the infection is somewhere on the streets of Seattle, Dr. Blatherman states. The doctor also takes pain to contradict the reports from irresponsible media sources"—translation: NN’s competitors—"that fatalities have, so far, been limited to the metroplex gang subculture. He also states—even more vehemently—that this is not similar in any way, shape, or form to Virally Induced Toxic Allergy Syndrome. This is not, as has been previously—and irresponsibly—reported by others, an outbreak of some mythical strain of VITAS 4.