They saw no one at all until they got to Infirmary. A woman in a Burberry stood in front of the Casualties Ward holding a picket sign that said 'Ban Foreign Diseases'. A man wearing a regulation face mask opened the door for them and handed Dunworthy a very damp flyer. Dunworthy asked at the admission desk for Mary and then read the flyer. In boldface type it said 'FIGHT INFLUENZA. VOTE TO SECEDE FROM THE EC'. Underneath was a paragraph: 'Why will you be separated from your loved ones this Christmas? Why are you forced to stay in Oxford? Why are you in danger of getting ill and dying? Because the EC allows infected foreigners to enter England, and England doesn't have a thing to say about it. An Indian immigrant carrying a deadly virus---' Dunworthy didn't read the rest. He turned it over. It read, 'A Vote for Secession is a Vote for Health. Committee for an Independent Great Britain.'

— Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (Page 273 - 274)