Book Rpt

demon in the deep freezerA Book ReportAuthor : Richard P easeonPublisher : random HouseLocation of Publication : untried YorkYear of Copyright : 2002 deuce in the freezer by familiar computer computer virus expert Richard P symmetricalnesson is the tertiary admit in his `trilogy of demise After zooming in on the dangers of Ebola virus in his popular book The Hot regularise and bioengineered monkey pox in The Cobra Event Preston shifts the focus to the lurking itty-bitty panic posed by the detrimental sm some(prenominal)pox virus in the veritable(a)t that it becomes the new-fashi sensationd weapon system of choice among flagellumists dabbling in chemical substance warf argonThe book is premised on an dire nevertheless in truth factual possibility - the vulnerability of the States and the rest of the l and to biologic weapons at the hands of nemesisistsIt on the intact(a) begins on the events of September 27 , 2001 , a Thursday , to a greater extent(prenominal) or less three weeks after the terror bombardments on the Twin Towers of the mod York World carry on Center and the Pent agon . Photo retoucher Robert Stevens begins to feel sickly and suffers from flu-like symptoms after he takes his family hiking in sum Carolina . He conveys to pass profusely and concisely develops a high febrility , convulsions , and slips into a coma sooner succumbing to a fatal brea materialisation cheque . Medical experts diagnose the cause of death as ingestion splenic fever , warning signal Army sullenicials into action . More poisoned letter are dis superlativeed and the victims are rushed into bivouac units , forcing regime to confront the switch - could the splenic fever , non-communicable and treatable with early diagnosis , be laced with something far to a greater extent deadly - the fatal variola study virus m! ajor major virus virusAfter narrating the splenic fever attacks on Sen . Tom Deschle s office in October 2001 , Preston marques a secular jump (one of several in fact ) to cover a variola bang in Ger some back in 1970 , courtesy of the man hammer Los , who in his youth has asleep(p) traipsing central around the historicalism in Afghanistan , India and Pakistan in out of bounds of the hippie ideals of the `60s . Preston then proceeds to describe the prehistoric origins of variola major as far as the early river v tout ensembleey civilizations of Egypt and MesopotamiaThen he propels back to the `70s as he retells the variola major eradication crowd led by medical exam doctor Donald Ainslie (DA ) Henderson , then theater placeor of the World sur suitness Organization s variola major virus Eradication social unit from its inception (1966 ) to 1977 , just originally the last known report case occurredHenderson is passionate rough bestowting rid of the virusWhat we necessity to do is bring about a general honourable climate where variola major is con lookred too morally reprehensible to be betroth as a weapon . That would make the stubbornness of variola in a laboratory , anywhere , effectively a crime against hu globe . The likelihood that it would be used as a weapon is diminished by a world-wide commitment to destroy it . How practically it is diminished I founder t know . But it adds a level of prophylactic (Preston , 2002 br. 54A Soviet epidemiologist also deserves credit for jump-starting the modern effort to carry off variola major - Viktor Zhdanov - who called for its global eradication at the 1958 World wellness Assembly annual meeting This was subsequently endorsed by professorship Lyndon caperson in 1965 in a political move to expel Ameri grass-Soviet transaction , and D .A . Henderson found himself heading the World wellness Organization s new Smallpox Eradication Unit . And the rest of the eradication campa ign became one of the greatest feats in worldly con! cern health historyPreston now gambols to an examination of the Soviet biologic weapons purpose in 1989 , after Soviet biologist Vladimir Pasechnik defected to Britain and confirmed that the USSR had biological missiles targeted at the united States . This infuriated then British line of longitude Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush , who confronted Soviet deviation leader Mikhail Gorbachev . In response , Gorbachev allowed a small , concealed team up up of weapons inspectors to tour the Soviet s bio-warfare facilities for their Biopreparat chopine . These Ameri give the gate and British inspectors were horrify by what they discovered : Russian scientists were testing and experimenting with variola major virus at their bioweapons facility at the vector virology complex in Siberia , in violation of the WHO rules . This was denied by Soviet authoritiesFor tallness UDAMRIID scientist Peter Jahrling , the daimon in the freezer has been target loos e , with illegal stocks of the variola virus in obstinacy of scamp states like Iraq and North Korea al nigh a certainty . The thought of biologists in secret labs creating new strains of the virus into a `superpox variant resistant to all vaccinums is enough to displace chills obliterate virologists spines . Jahrling is leading a team of scientists in contentious experiments with live smallpox to develop vaccines and inspection and repair tax return what the bioterrorists capability be cooking upThe author views the overthrow of biological terrorism as a very real , urgent and fright bane to national protective cover , and the fate of worldity on the whole , apt(p) immediately s mobile world where a smallpox outbreak could sp glance over as immobile as wildfire across countries all over the globeFollowing the events after 9 /11 and the anthrax terror , Preston highlights the new world : the from these new jeopardises . Smallpox is recognized as the new supreme bioterror menace , given the disease s dominance to! cause homo distortion its capability for fast and unaccented transmission , and ultimately its fatal character . Anthrax pales in comparison as direct contact is unnecessary for smallpox to spread - all it takes is for the virus to pass away through a ventilation system . franchise from the disease through vaccines introduced decades ago effectively vanishes , and if released in today s very mobile world , it would easily overwhelm mankind in dreadful waves Preston compactly captures the menace of smallpox , without resorting to exaggeration Smallpox is explosively hereditary , and it travels through the air computer virus particles in the give tongue to become airborne when the host negotiation . If you inhale a single particle of smallpox , you can come down with the disease . Then the illness hits with a spike of fever , a backache , and vomiting , and a snap later minute red spots appear all over the tree trunk . The spots turn into blisters , called festeringtules , and the suppurationtules enlarge option with pressurized opalescent pus . The eruption of pustules is some prison terms called the splitting of the dermis . The spit out doesn t break but splits horizontally , bowelless forth from its underlayers . The pustules become hard , bloated sacs the size of peas , encasing the body with pus and the skin resembles a cobbled stone street.The pain of the splitting is wonderful . multitude lose the ability to speak , and their eyes can thrust shut with pustules , but they re master(prenominal) alert . goal comes with a breathing arrest or a bosom attack or shock or an resistant-system storm , though on the dot how smallpox kills a person is non known (Preston , 2002 ,. 44The sociological consequences on account of the issue of bioterrorism are reproduce and far-r for each oneing . There is of wrinkle the issue of magnate relations among nations , especially in the case of the arms travel fastly between the United States and the USSR during the Cold War which brought to the fo! re the bane of nuclear dissolution and bio-chemical warfare Though the Soviet axis has crumbled , opposite rogue states , e .g . North Korea , Cuba and Iran , are more than ready to nemesisen and challenge the United States for military achievement , and might even be developing new weapons of good deal destruction no longer limited to nuclear warheads but utilizing as well deadly pathogens and viral strainsPreston spends much epoch in the book discussing original efforts of the American scientific society to research smallpox in the hope of better combating bioterrorism . It is important to observe , as Preston does , that the lot leading the hold to destroy smallpox , though well-trained was still mostly a ragtag concourse of scientists and medical doctors with the firm conviction that smallpox could indeed , and should be annihilated from the face of the planetPerhaps his discussion of the sure research on smallpox would prove more applicable as he provides a det ailed and analysis of the conflicts and controversies adjoin the project - from securing sycophancy and the go-ahead signal from top governing body officials to the personal conflicts and issues the personalities knobbed in the research ready had to face . The primary uphold centers on the perceived lax security at the 2 world tolerant biomedical installations , one in Atlanta and the former(a) at Siberia , and their conviction on the very real threat of bioterrorism which could strike anytime and claim so many lives given the state of unpreparedness to counter such(prenominal) an attackPreston successfully connects the past times (the nervous impulse for eradication of the disease ) to the future (current concerns on how to counter the virus . As situated within the new-world setting of post 9 /11 , on that point is a insistency need for vaccine stockpiling , long advocated by top government virologist Peter Jahrling who had initially feared the lacing of the mailed an thrax spores with smallpox . He comes into conflict w! ith D . A . Henderson , the current head of the site of Public Health Preparedness , as he argues for the information of an antiviral agent for those who cannot receive the smallpox vaccine . Henderson thinks that Jahrling s experimentation with smallpox in laboratory monkeys is a largely egotistic step in the wrong room .

The dean of John Hopkins School of Public Health Al Sommer has joined the contention , believing that Jahrling s work provides an impetus for early(a)(a) countries to conduct their on experiments on smallpox , thereby We could start an arms race over smallpox (Sommers as quoted by Preston , 2002Mor e disturbing is the manifestation of the creation of a genetically engineered mousepox virus to which mousepox-resistant rodents are super susceptible , intensifying the fear that unprincipled scientists might incur already created a `smallpox supervirus immune to current vaccines Preston (2002 ) leaves us with this dire warning The main thing that stands between the gay species and the creation of a supervirus is a experience of responsibility among singular biologists .The international community of physicists came of age in a pause of light over the sand of triplet in virgin Mexico . The biologists commit not yet experient their TrinityThe book s main strength is that is a well-researched piece , and Richard Preston has prove himself a beneficial writer with his vivid memorial and unglamourous style allowing him to hand out with hyperbole . The book succeeds in frightening its readers as it covers many interesting episodes . Although some may find the message of fiend in the deep freezer ghastly and uncomfor! table it theless awakens readers to the accepted import of chillingly real concepts , i .e . weapons of battalion destruction and bioterrorismOn the weak side , the temporal jumps in the narration give one the ruling of a disjointed read , as the two stories on anthrax and smallpox do not quite guide as smoothly and coherently as one might wish - the author fails to draw the story in such a way that there is an effectively riveting and broadloom momentum - though each part is fascinating . At some point , there is also too much details to grasp and use up , and to that extremity the reader have to grapple with information choke off , halting the usually rapid fire story-tellingThe main virgule of the author is that he is of course writing from the American lieu , as the USA proves to be the eminent target of terror attacks . Thus , Demon in the deep freezer appears to be an attempt to inform and warn Americans of the dangers they are currently facing from the threat of bioterrorism , and to some extent to influence authorities and make them acquire the horrors - a global viral epidemic which could jump out the world s community - which might arise from inactivity on the part of government and the scientific community A vaccine-resistant smallpox would be everyone s worst nightmare come true . We could be left stressful to fight a genetically engineered virus with a vaccine that had been invented in 1796 (Preston , 2002General Russell had this to add If smallpox real got going , people should be most concern about a privation of effective leadership on the part of their government (quoted by Preston , 2002 ,. 60On a happy note , Demon in the Freezer provided the timely opportunity for me to get acquainted with the issue of bioterrorism and its bear upond concepts - biological warfare , weapons of mass destruction etc , which are obviously pressing concerns for populace burdened with the threat of nuclear destruction and annihilation in a not-so-distant future . nevertheless , this rem! ains to be the only(prenominal) experience I have so far with the issue of bioterrorism and specifically smallpox and anthrax for that matterIn terms of the need for further research , I think it should focus more on determining and social occasion out the states which really have illegal strains of smallpox virus in their obstinacy , in to effectively prepare for any possible worse-case scenarios in the advent of a smallpox terror attack . asunder from smallpox , it might prove subservient in the semipermanent if scientists also map out other possible biological agents which might pose future threats to human security , and to look the possibility of developing vaccines and other counter-measures . all(prenominal) of these proposed researches need to be conducted in the most stringent up-to-standard manner possible , with adequate empiric grounding and in the most morally and ethically grateful waysI think in many ways (though it might be indirect , the reviewed work doe s relate to Sociology , with the latter in turn covering a wide array of fields involving human interaction and dynamics in the context of groups and societies . Political institutions and the turn out dynamics and power relations governing these are discussed by Preston in the book , unneurotic with the issue of ethics in research , i .e . the affray surrounding experiments with smallpox and other viral agentsPerhaps it would prove effectual if material from the book would be incorporated into class lectures , specially the ethical aspects of research and experimentation with life -threatening organisms , the actual universe of discourse and lingering threat of biological warfare and terrorism , and how it is organism met by actual social institutionsOverall , I did found Demon in the Freezer an interesting read though at times I had to really struggle with understanding all the concepts and trains of thought Preston had introduced in his narratives It was informative at t he same time , though at some point you would really ! realize how frighteningly real is the scenario the author is trying to relay to his audienceReferencePreston , Richard (2002 . 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