“The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.”—Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy The first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with “hot” agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book … Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense.
Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world’s most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines.
Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government’ s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level FBI agents and with Dr. Steven Hatfill.
Jahrling is leading a team of scientists doing controversial experiments with live smallpox virus at CDC. Preston takes us into the lab where Jahrling is reawakening smallpox and explains, with cool and devastating precision, what may be at stake if his last bold experiment fails.
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Frightening, but informative book about a real threat to our lives today.
This is a really scary book since it describes the potential of a bacterial inhalation and the potential for the extermination of thousands of people.
I became interested in viral and bacterial infections after a helicopter flew over my daughter’s house in Dallas after the Ebola breakout there. I don’t want to be caught totally ignorant of pandemics if, God forbid, such a terrible thing happens. After reading this book I am scared and more informed. I will definitely pay careful attention to …
Very interesting book! Similar to” The Hot Zone”. Describes how smallpox killed millions in past ages. And how both U.S. and Russia have the virus frozen. But it isn’t Gone and could be a weapon of war.
need help staying awake at night? this book will help.
If you are into horrifying diseases and bioweapons, this is a great book to read to get a feel of how these dangerous organisms and substances are handled by the experts.
This is the most frightening book I’ve read in a long time. I highly recommend it if you want to understand the dangers of biological warfare.
Had previously read ‘The Hot Zone’ and this is pretty much along the same lines-same scary premise, different scary agent. Reality can be much more frightening that fiction.
The author has given us a glimpse into a very frightening possible future. His descriptions of smallpox and anthrax infections are thorough and effective. The story of the eradication efforts which has almost eliminated smallpox is quite inspiring. I found his style engaging and easy to follow.
Oh my, opened my eyes to so many happening around that world that could go so wrong! Who knew they kept rampant bacteria and virus’s in freezers, un secured, around the world! What’s for lunch!