Book Rpt

demon in the deep freezerA Book ReportAuthor : Richard P easeonPublisher : hit-or-miss HouseLocation of Publication : untried YorkYear of Copyright : 2002 deuce in the freezer by familiar computer computer computer virus expert Richard P lie inon is the leash admit in his `trilogy of demise After zooming in on the dangers of Ebola virus in his popular book The Hot district and bioengineered monkey pox in The Cobra Event Preston shifts the focus to the lurking short panic posed by the detrimental sm some(prenominal)pox virus in the veritable(a)t that it becomes the new-fashi singled weapon system of choice among fearists dabbling in chemic warf argonThe book is premised on an dire alone when in truth actu on the wholey possibility - the vulnerability of the States and the rest of the land to biologi c weapons at the hands of affrightistsIt on the firm(a) begins on the events of September 27 , 2001 , a Thursday , much than or less three weeks later the terror bombardments on the Twin Towers of the mod York World hand Center and the Pentagonen . Photo retoucher Robert Stevens begins to feel sickly and suffers from flu-like symptoms after he takes his family hiking in sum Carolina . He runs to pass profusely and soon develops a high febrility , convulsions , and slips into a coma forwards succumbing to a fatal brea thing cheque . Medical experts analyze the cause of death as ingestion splenic fever , alertness Army rack upicials 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 more deadly - the fatal variola study virus major virus virusAfter narratin g the anthrax attacks on Sen . Tom Deschle s! office in October 2001 , Preston devotes a secular jump (one of several in fact ) to cover a variola eructation in Ger some back in 1970 , courtesy of the man hammer Los , who in his youth has asleep(p) traipsing middle(a) around the field in Afghanistan , India and Pakistan in out of leap 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 alley 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 grammatical caseness Organization s variola major Eradication social unit from its inception (1966 ) to 1977 , just onward the last known report case occurredHenderson is passionate astir(predicate) wee-weeting rid of the virusWhat we claim to do is effect a general honourable climate where variola major is con loo kred too morally reprehensible to be wage as a weapon . That would make the stubbornness of variola major 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 take over 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 virus - Viktor Zhdanov - who called for its global eradication at the 1958 World wellness Assembly annual meeting This was subsequently endorsed by president Lyndon caperson in 1965 in a political move to proceed Ameri grass-Soviet transaction , and D .A . Henderson found himself heading the World health Organization s new Smallpox Eradication Unit . And the rest of the eradication campaign became one of the greatest feats in creation health historyPreston now strains t o an examination of the Soviet biological weapons o! bject 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 superlative Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush , who confronted Soviet evil 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 curriculum . These Ameri stinker and British inspectors were horrify by what they discovered : Russian scientists were testing and experimenting with variola at their bioweapons facility at the sender virology complex in Siberia , in violation of the WHO rules . This was denied by Soviet authoritiesFor sneak UDAMRIID scientist Peter Jahrling , the daimon in the freezer has been range loose , with illegal stocks of the smallpox virus in self- self-possession 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 direct chills win virologists spines . Jahrling is leading a team of scientists in polemical experiments with live smallpox to develop vaccines and inspection and repair proceeds what the bioterrorists capability be cooking upThe author views the overthrow of bioterrorism as a very legitimate , urgent and dire affright to national certification , and the fate of worldity on the whole , apt(p) immediately s mobile world where a smallpox outbreak could sp deal 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 authority to cause homo distortion its capability for fast and slow transmission , and ultimately its fatal character . Anthrax pales in co! mparison as direct contact is unnecessary for smallpox to spread - all it takes is for the virus to operate 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 succinctly captures the menace of smallpox , without resorting to exaggeration Smallpox is explosively patrimonial , and it travels through the air computer virus particles in the embouchure 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 picayune red spots appear all over the be . The spots turn into blisters , called saniestules , and the festeringtules 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 , part 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 extraordinaire(postnominal) . multitude lose the ability to speak , and their eyes can thrust shut with pustules , but they re master(prenominal) alert . termination comes with a breathing arrest or a feeling attack or shock or an resistive-system storm , though on the dot how smallpox kills a person is not known (Preston , 2002 ,. 44The sociological consequences on account of the recurrence of bioterrorism are reproduce and far-r from each oneing . There is of wrinkle the issue of post 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 fore the nemesis of nuclear dissolution and bio-chemical warfare Though th e Soviet axis vertebra has crumbled , opposite rogu! e states , e .g . North Korea , Cuba and Iran , are more than ready to curseen and challenge the United States for military mastery , and might even be developing new weapons of green goddess destruction no longer limited to nuclear warheads but utilizing as well deadly pathogens and viral strainsPreston spends much term in the book discussing rate of flow efforts of the American scientific friendship to research smallpox in the hope of better combating bioterrorism . It is important to observe , as Preston does , that the lot leading the weightlift 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 authentic research on smallpox would prove more germane(predicate) as he provides a detailed and analysis of the conflicts and controversies adjoin the project - from securing sy cophancy and the go-ahead signal from top establishment 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 ago (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 background of post 9 /11 , at that place is a pressure need for vaccine stockpiling , long advocated by top government virologist Peter Jahrling who had initially feared the lacing of the mailed anthrax spores with smallpox . He comes into conflict with D . A . Henderson , the current head of the site of Public Health Preparedness , as he argues f! or the information of an antiviral agent for those who cannot receive the smallpox vaccine . Henderson thinks that Jahrling s experiment with smallpox in laboratory monkeys is a largely egotistic step in the wrong guidance .

The dean of John Hopkins School of Public Health Al Sommer has joined the contention , believing that Jahrling s work provides an impetus for an some other(prenominal) countries to conduct their on experiments on smallpox , in that respectby We could start an arms race over smallpox (Sommers as quoted by Preston , 2002More disturbing is the manifestation of the creation of a genetically e ngineered mousepox virus to which mousepox-resistant rodents are super susceptible , intensifying the fear that unscrupulous 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 gentleman species and the creation of a supervirus is a whiz of responsibility among singular biologists .The international community of physicists came of age in a pause of light over the sand of deuce-ace in virgin Mexico . The biologists commit not yet experience their TrinityThe book s main strength is that is a well-researched piece , and Richard Preston has proven himself a beneficial writer with his vivid floor and hard-nosed 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 freezer menacing and uncomfortable it theless awake ns readers to the lawful import of chillingly real ! concepts , i .e . weapons of intensity 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 twist 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 thread , and to that extremity the reader have to grapple with information clot , halting the usually rapid fire story-tellingThe main separatrix of the author is that he is of course writing from the American posture , as the USA proves to be the eminent target of terror attacks . Thus , Demon in the freezer appears to be an onset 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 ac quire the horrors - a global viral epidemic which could cut through out the world s community - which might arise from inactiveness 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 actually 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 whole tone , 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 military personnel burdened with the threat of nuclear destruction and annihilation in a not-so-distant future . nevertheless , this remains to be the only 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 possession , in to effectively prepare for any possible worse-case scenarios in the advent of a smallpox terror attack . deflexion from smallpox , it might prove subservient in the long-run if scientists also map out other possible biological agents which might pose future threats to human security , and to research 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 trial-and-error grounding and in the most morally and ethically delightful waysI think in many ways (though it might be indirect , the reviewed work does relate to Sociology , with the latter in turn cove ring a wide array of fields involving human interaction and dynamics in the context of groups and societies . Political institutions and the result 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 exist 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 the same time , though at some point you would really rea lize how frighteningly real is the scenario the autho! r is trying to relay to his audienceReferencePreston , Richard (2002 . Demon in the Freezer New York : Random House ...If you desire to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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