Big difference, hopefully, is that in The Stand, the ones who died of the super-flu were the lucky ones.
We don’t really know that there are no isolationists who survive. King doesn’t address whether it can be spread more distantly - like on the breeze to a house a few miles away - but I would assume not. And in the extended edition, there’s a scene that was cut out of the original release of the book, where Flagg materializes on an isolated island (middle of the Pacific, or some such) and finds the native population unscathed and potentially ready to worship him.
Getting back to the idea of an isolated person or family being alone while the disease did its initial run: sooner or later even the most isolated people would typically visit “civilization” for supplies. and potentially be exposed even if nobody is still alive when they get to town. There’s no clear discussion of whether the virus persists in the absence of live hosts, or whether the survivors would actually be asymptomatic carriers, but I know they were worried about it when Fran had her baby, so they clearly were concerned about it.
So: a hermit coming to down for his annual restocking trip would be in danger if the virus could persist on surfaces, but would be fine if he went to a town where everyone had died.
Back to the OP: Aside from “wooo PANDEMIC” there’s really not a strong parallel, though of course I thought of it. I even found a version on Youtube and watched it (haven’t reread the book).
I don’t recall reading that story. What’s it called and where do I find it?
His short story “1408”
It’s in his story collection “everything’s eventual”
Thanks