In Stephen King’s novel The Stand, the plague that devastates most of the population is called Captain Trips.
Captain Trips is the nickname for a highly contagious strain of influenza known in the novel as the superflu. It escapes from a secret military laboratory and spreads rapidly across the United States and beyond. The disease kills nearly everyone it infects, leaving a small number of survivors to rebuild society.
The novel was first published in 1978 in an abridged form. King released an expanded edition in 1990, restoring material that had been cut and updating some details. The story then follows survivors who are drawn into opposing communities associated with Mother Abagail and Randall Flagg.
The title refers to the moral and spiritual struggle that follows the catastrophe, not merely to the outbreak itself. “Captain Trips” is the memorable popular name used by survivors, while “superflu” describes the disease more directly. The two terms refer to the same fictional pandemic.