A gripping medical drama that focuses on outbreaks of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, a deadly virus. Dr. Melissa Blumenthal, a Centers for Disease Control investigator, is thrust into the center of each seemingly unrelated outbreak. She slowly unravels the mystery of the virus and the conspiracy of doctors behind the growing crisis. (From School Library Journal)
The Hot Zone, By Richard Preston
The virus kills nine out of ten of its victims so quickly and gruesomely that even biohazard experts are terrified. It is airborne, it is extremely contagious, and it is about to burn through the suburbs of a major American city. Is there any way to stop it?
In the winter of 1989, at an Army research facility outside Washington, D.C., this doomsday scenario seemed like a real possibility. A SWAT team of soldiers and scientists wearing biohazard space suits had been organized to stop the outbreak of an exotic "hot" virus. The grim operation went on in secret for eighteen days, under dangerous conditions for which there was no precedent.
OOooo, one of these books is not like the other! In the sense that Outbreak is fiction, and also, not very good, whereas The Hot Zone is non-fiction, and nightmarish. I checked out Outbreak because I was in the mood for a mystery thriller, and I guess in that sense Outbreak lived up to the hope. But the premise collapses in on itself about two-thirds of the way in, and the terrible, horrible, no-good ending is just....awful. But I was intrigued by the opening chapter of Outbreak, which deals with the original Zaire Ebola outbreak, so I decided to get The Hot Zone, which goes into the history of the virus in more detail, and I was not disappointed in that. But let me back up.
Outbreak is about a woman in the CDC who gets sent on missions to contain what turn out to be Ebola outbreaks in cities around the U.S. We meet her CDC pals, the two guys she's hooking up with, her boss, and the first victim of the outbreak. Then all hell breaks loose. That part is fine. It's a mystery! Why is Ebola infecting the index cases? So many questions! Then. THEN. It begins to go off the rails. First, her boss sexually harasses her. Big-time. This guy, (Dubchek) tells her his wife is dead, then asks if she's dating anyone, and she says no, and he's all, let's get back to work, then:
That sounded good to Marissa. She stood up and went over to the coffee table to pick up her papers. As she straightened up, she realized that Dubchek had come up behind her. Before she could react, he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. The action so surprised her that she stood frozen. For a brief moment their lips met. Then she pulled away, her papers dropping to the floor.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I wasn't planning that at all, but ever since you arrived at CDC I've been tempted to do that. God knows I don't believe in dating anyone I work with, but it's the first time since my wife died that I've really been interested in a woman. You don't look like her at all - Jane was tall and blond - but you have that same enthusiasm for your work. She was a musician, and when she played well, she had that exact same expression I've seen you get."
Marissa was silent. She knew she was being mean, that Dubchek certainly had not been harassing her, but she felt embarrassed and awkward, and was unwilling to say something to ease over the incident.
"Marissa," he said gently, "I'm telling you that I'd like to take you out when we get back to Atlanta, but if you're involved with Ralph or just don't want to . . ." his voice trailed off.
Marissa bent down and picked up her notes. "If we're going back to the hospital, we'd better get going now," she said curtly.
He stiffly followed her to the elevator. Later, sitting silently in her rent-a-car, Marissa berated herself. [Dubchek] was the most attractive man she'd met since Roger. Why had she behaved so unreasonably?
Like, what just happened here? That was definitely harassment. That feeling of embarrassment and awkwardness? Is because your boss hit on you and you are now in the awful position of having to say no to someone with control over your job. The only unreasonable thing you did was not immediately get on the horn and get this sleaze written up.
THEN. Her boss is an absolute DICK. Since she "behaved so unreasonably," he ignores her when she's working and trying to talk over the details of the outbreaks with him, so that she can't do her job properly (which is to assess and control the situation and work out how it started), he refuses to allow her access to the lab which might answer some of her questions on the basis that she's "not qualified" (i.e., hasn't touched his dick), hangs up on her in the middle of work calls, and is a general all-around asshole. Meanwhile, Marissa doesn't report him to HR, instead, she spends the book alternately kicking herself because that Dubchek, he's so dreamy! Why didn't she take him up on his super offer! And then believing that he's the one who's setting the Ebola loose, then, once she founds out (spoiler!) that he's not, she does this:
"So when will you be coming back to the CDC?" asked Dubchek. "We've already gotten you clearance for the maximum containment lab." This time there was no doubt about his grin. "No one relished the thought of your stumbling around in there at night anymore."
Marissa blushed in spite of herself. "I haven't decided yet. I'm actually considering going back into pediatrics."
"Back to Boston?" Dubchek's face fell.
"It will be a loss to the field," said Dr. Fakkry. "You've become an international epidemiological hero."
"I'll give it more thought," promised Marissa. "But even if I do go back to pediatrics, I'm planning on staying in Atlanta." She nuzzled her new puppy. There was a pause, then she added, "But I've one request."
"If we can be of any help..." said Dr. Fakkry.
Marissa shook her head. "Only [Dubchek] can help on this one. Whether I go back to pediatrics or not I was hoping he'd ask me to dinner again."
Dubchek was taken off guard. Then, laughing at Fakkry's bemused expression, he leaned over and hugged Marissa to his side.
WHOA. I was - somewhat - prepared for this, having read reviews of Outbreak but COME ON. WHAT THE FUCK, ROBIN COOK? This guy deserved to be reported to his superiors for what he did, and you decide to hit on him in front of another work colleague? Can't say you don't belong together, I guess. PLUS, this was after she used one of her hook-ups for his connections to the lab (repeatedly) and then when he put his foot down on that (because she kept causing problems) she was like, I think you're the one who is killing all these people. Later, when they break up, and Dubchek decides to get her fired in revenge, you can't say she wasn't warned.
God, the whole plot just didn't make sense. The doctors were being murdered because they were HMO hospitals? Seriously? There's such a problem with pre-pay medical services? Plus, if everyone else was on the corporate Board of Doom, how come (spoiler!) Ralph, her other hook-up, wasn't? I mean, he was clearly in on it. Was his name not in the records for any good reason, or just because it would have made the book even less suspenseful? And how come she kept announcing where she was going even though she knew people were following her? And she would announce it to the bad guys, KNOWING they were the bad guys (as opposed to when she'd tell the guys she thought were good, but were actually bad) and then be all surprised when hired assassins show up at her next destination.
AND! When she got hit with the Ebola gun, then couldn't get to the "antibodies" in time, so she was just like, "Well, guess I'm going to...not check in to a hospital for treatment or sequester myself, but instead travel as widely as possible so that if I am infected, I can kill the maximum number of people." What an asshole.
Although, to be fair, that is apparently what REAL PEOPLE do in outbreaks, too. Let's segue into The Hot Zone! Question time! Did you know that Ebola is approximately sixteen times more deadly than yellow fever? Did you know that it has no cure, no inoculation, no antibodies, and no treatment? Did you know that your insides liquify and you can vomit so much black miasma that the skin on your tongue starts to come off? Did you know that I had terrible terrible dreams after reading The Hot Zone? Are you surprised by that?
The Hot Zone is a fascinating book about a real outbreak of a (thankfully, non-deadly to humans) strain of Ebola near Washington, D.C. It's kind of an oddly structured book, since the first couple of sections are about viral hemorrhagic fevers in general, their entry into the modern world, and basically setting the stage for why we're all so severely fucked if Ebola goes airborne (which, it.. kinda already is, to some degree).
The strain that lies at the heart of The Hot Zone was, like the prior known strains of Ebola and Marburg, initially found in primates. Once discovered in the monkey house, it's interesting to see how everyone reacted: INAPPROPRIATELY. Hand to god, these two lab technicians sniffed a petri dish full of ebola, and then when they found out what it was they were like, "Uh, I'm not going to say anything. If I feel sick, maybe I'll check myself in to the hospital then." SERIOUSLY. Reading The Hot Zone made me terribly afraid of our quarantine measures. People who should have known better: doctors, nurses, people who work with these contagious, deadly viruses, all of them, completely disregarded others' safety in the interest of not disrupting their own plans. Not a single person 'fessed up to possible infection even after: blood got into "space suits" (used to protect against contamination), sniffing ebola, operating on ebola victims. The one person who was kind of thoughtful about the human race was a man who, after possibly getting infected in a Sudan outbreak, decided to stay behind and keep working on saving lives. After he never developed symptoms, he went back home again. But no else did. They all decided to take the risk that this unknown strain of Ebola could infect and decimate the population.
Which, thankfully, it did not. But it does concern me that there's this apparent tendency to just - go on like nothing's happened. I guess some of the reasoning is that if you anticipate it, Ebola isn't as contagious in the early stages, so you can always check yourself in later. But what a risk to take, not just for you, but for people around you. I was discussing this with my mother, who mentioned that she read a book that said something similar happened with Typhoid Mary - she wasn't originally restrained, but simply asked not to be a cook anymore. She left her job, but came back because she didn't like being a laundress, apparently still not quite connecting the dots that led to her killing and harming a number of people. Asymptomatic carriers are real things, and the disregard of safety by people who would be expected to know better was one of the scarier parts of the book.
Not to be diminished, of course, by the descriptions of the disease on physical flesh. I found this to be morbidly fascinating. I simply had never heard of the effects and the danger of Ebola, I guess I thought it was more like, malaria, or yellow fever, or japanese encephalitis, any one of those strange diseases that you plan around when taking trips (although maybe I should have shelled out for that vaccine after all!). The practitioners and people who do work to ensure that the infected are cared for and risk their lives are to be commended. Certainly there are brave people in The Hot Zone, who walked into a steaming zoo of Ebola to contain and prevent contagion. It's an interesting, fascinating book, one which I have taken to bringing up in all my conversations this last week. "Oh, you live near Washington, D.C.? Did you know they had an Ebola outbreak?" "You know what Ebola does to you? No? Let me tell you!"
Good reading, and good dreaming.
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