The New York City subway system’s first modern experience with an outbreak of a deadly virus was half comedy, half triumph. In October 2014, Craig Spencer, an American doctor recently returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea, decided to celebrate with a night on the town. From his West Harlem apartment, Spencer took three separate subways to a bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, then took an Uber home.

The next day, he fell ill with a fever. Snarking commenters wagged that Spencer, with his perfect millennial mix of transportation and venue, had put all of gentrifying New York at risk of gruesome death, all because he wanted to amuse himself when he should have been self-quarantining.