That DEAD ZONE episode was called the "plague" (S2EP14)
The series premise is John Smith wakes up after six years in a coma. He then finds that he can sense the past and future of the objects and people that he touches. His ex-fiancee is married to the local sheriff, and he has a six-year-old son who knows nothing about him.
The "plaque" episode (July 2003) plot involves corona virus originating from China and chloroquine being the "cure."
Johnny has a vision of a plague that starts with the children at a science fair. He and Walt must convince a skeptical health inspector and the CDC of his abilities to save everyone. He looks into the future and sees the cure weeks before its discovery.
writter: Jeremy Bernstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Dead_Zone_episodes#Season_2_(2003)
What I find even stranger is that chloroquine wasn't even discovered to work against SARS CoV until 2005, two years after this episode aired!
Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread
Virology Journal volume 2, Article number: 69 (2005)
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1743-422X-2-69