Perversely, it's my favorite chapter in the whole book. The scariest chapter in the whole book is the one where he follows the transmission of the disease from one person to another and another...the plague section of the book is several times scarier than the rest of it, but it is a great novel.
The problem I have is that the disease would have been almost certainly identified as (a) being artificial and (b) of American origin.
The USSR and China would launch their nukes...
The US would return the favor...
And that would be that.
(Remember, this was back when strategic warhead totals were in the 10,000+ range on each side.)
Yeah, I was reading The Stand while visiting my folks once. I hadn't been there in a long time. Anyway, I had a hard time getting to sleep since the book was so scary. Late that night I woke up in a fright so I went to the refrigerator to get a drink of water. Suddenly I heard "CLOMP! CLOMP! CLOMP!" I froze in fear while backing into a dark corner of the kitchen as the clomping sound got closer. A strange creature entered the kitchen and I was in a complete panic. Then the creature opened the refigerator door and I felt relief as I saw outlined by the refrigerator light the stark nekkid body of my father who was on one of his frequently sleepwalking missions to the kitchen. He took a slug of milk from a carton, cut a loud fart, and then clomped clomped back to his bedroom without ever awakening the whole time.
It was a fascinating view of what could happen when the infrastructures fail. Did you read the expanded version that come out in the mid-90's? The expanded version had extra chapters about the post-apocalyptic breakdown of society.