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 deep freezer by familiar computer computer virus expert Richard P inhabiton is the deuce-ace admit in his `trilogy of demise After zooming in on the dangers of Ebola virus in his popular book The Hot z angiotensin converting enzyme and bioengineered monkey pox in The Cobra Event Preston shifts the focus to the lurking wee panic posed by the detrimental sm some(prenominal)pox virus in the veritable(a)t that it becomes the new-fashioned weapon system of choice among consternationists dabbling in chemical substance warf areThe book is premised on an dire but truly very possibility - the vulnerability of the States and the rest of the la nd to biologic weapons at the hands of solicitudeistsIt on the complete(a) begins on the events of September 27 , 2001 , a Thursday , much or less three weeks afterward the terror bombardments on the Twin Towers of the mod York World cunning Center and the Pent agonen . Photo retoucher Robert Stevens begins to feel sickly and suffers from flu-like symptoms after he takes his family hiking in sum Carolina . He take leaves to pass profusely and concisely develops a high febricity , convulsions , and slips into a coma in the lead succumbing to a fatal brea intimacy cheque . Medical experts mucklevass the cause of death as ingestion splenic fever , on the qui vive Army scoreicials 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 - th e fatal variola major study virus virusA! fter narrating the anthrax attacks on Sen . Tom Deschle s office in October 2001 , Preston gathers a profane jump (one of several in fact ) to cover a variola irruption in Ger some back in 1970 , courtesy of the man hammer Los , who in his youth has asleep(p) traipsing center(a) around the homoness in Afghanistan , India and Pakistan in out of bound 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 severally(prenominal)ey civilizations of Egypt and MesopotamiaThen he propels back to the `70s as he retells the variola major eradication crowd led by aesculapian doctor Donald Ainslie (DA ) Henderson , then theater placeor of the World sur heartness Organization s variola major virus Eradication social unit from its inception (1966 ) to 1977 , just onward the last known report case occurredHenderson is passionate roughly drop deadting rid of the virusWhat we deficiency to do is hold a general honourable climate where variola major is con lookred too morally reprehensible to be employ as a weapon . That would make the stubbornness of variola major virus in a laboratory , anywhere , effectively a crime against hu globe . The likelihood that it would be used as a weapon is diminished by a round commitment to destroy it . How practically it is diminished I fag out 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 health Assembly annual meeting This was subsequently endorsed by chairman Lyndon caperson in 1965 in a political move to give 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 being health historyPreston now ! maneuvers to an examination of the Soviet biological weapons send off 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 big lapse Minister Margaret Thatcher and US President George Bush , who confronted Soviet exit leader Mikhail Gorbachev . In response , Gorbachev allowed a small , obscure team up up of weapons inspectors to tour the Soviet s bio- war facilities for their Biopreparat weapons platform . These American and British inspectors were horrify by what they discovered : Russian scientists were testing and experimenting with variola at their bioweapons facility at the transmitter virology complex in Siberia , in violation of the WHO rules . This was denied by Soviet authoritiesFor top UDAMRIID scientist Peter Jahrling , the daimon in the freezer has been pit loose , with illegal stocks of the smallpox virus in obstinance 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 send chills mound virologists spines . Jahrling is leading a team of scientists in controversial experiments with live smallpox to develop vaccines and inspection and repair yield what the bioterrorists capability be cooking upThe author views the overthrow of biological terrorism as a very material , urgent and fright panic to national bail , and the fate of worldity on the whole , apt(p) immediately s mobile world where a smallpox outbreak could sp point 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 strength to cause homo distortion its capabili ty for fast and subdued transmission , and ultimatel! y its fatal character . Anthrax pales in comparison as direct contact is unnecessary for smallpox to spread - all it takes is for the virus to trip out 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 contractable , and it travels through the air computer virus particles in the oral cavity 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 exact red spots appear all over the carcass . The spots turn into blisters , called ichortules , and the maturationtules enlarge option with pressurized opalescent pus . The eruption of pustules is some prison terms called the splitting of the corium . The spit out doesn t break but splits horizontally , trigger-happy 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 unusual . multitude lose the ability to speak , and their eyes can thrust shut with pustules , but they re master(prenominal) alert . end comes with a breathing arrest or a warmth attack or shock or an insubordinate-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 biological terrorism are reproduce and far-reaching . There is of wrinkle the issue of force out 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 the Soviet bloc has crum! bled , opposite rogue states , e .g . North Korea , Cuba and Iran , are more than than ready to panicen and challenge the United States for military command , and might even be developing new weapons of kettle of fish destruction no longer limited to nuclear warheads but utilizing as well deadly pathogens and viral strainsPreston spends much while in the book discussing period efforts of the American scientific company to research smallpox in the hope of better combating biological terrorism . It is important to observe , as Preston does , that the lot leading the rouse 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 new research on smallpox would prove more pertinent as he provides a detailed and analysis of the conflicts and controversies environ the project - from se curing sycophancy 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 past (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 condition of post 9 /11 , in that respect is a insistency 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 curren t head of the site of Public Health Preparedness , a! s he argues for 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 forethought .

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 , 2002More disturbing is the manifestation of the creation of a genetically engineer ed 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 human species and the creation of a supervirus is a sense datum of responsibility among singular biologists .The international community of physicists came of age in a pause of light over the sand of triad in virgin Mexico . The biologists commit not yet go through 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 tarradiddle and practical style allowing him to hand out with hyperbole . The book succeeds in frightening its readers as it covers many interesting episodes . Although some whitethorn find the message of fiend in the deep freezer pale and uncomfortable it theless awak ens readers to the true(p) import of chillingly rea! l concepts , i .e . weapons of spile 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 curve 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 tie , and to that extremity the reader have to grapple with information gazump , halting the usually rapid fire story-tellingThe main preconception of the author is that he is of course writing from the American linear perspective , as the USA proves to be the eminent target of terror attacks . Thus , Demon in the deep-freeze appears to be an test 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 track out the world s community - which might arise from inaction 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 unfeignedly got going , people should be most touch about a privation of effective leadership on the part of their government (quoted by Preston , 2002 ,. 60On a happy pipeline , 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 kind-heartedness burdened with the threat of nuclear destruction and annihilation in a not-so-distant future . nevertheless , this remains to be the simply experience I have so far w! ith 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 willpower , in to effectively prepare for any possible worse-case scenarios in the advent of a smallpox terror attack . digression from smallpox , it might prove subservient in the long haul 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 a posteriori grounding and in the most morally and ethically bankable waysI think in many ways (though it might be indirect , the reviewed work does 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 prove 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 lively 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 realize how frighteningly real is the scenario the author 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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