On December 9, 1979, smallpox, the most deadly human virus, ceased to exist in nature. After eradication, it was confined to freezers located in just two places on earth: the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Maximum Containment Laboratory in Siberia. But these final samples were not destroyed at that time, and now secret stockpiles of smallpox surely exist. For example, since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the subsequent end of its biological weapons program, a sizeable amount of the former Soviet Union's smallpox stockpile remains unaccounted for, leading to fears that the virus has fallen into the hands of nations or terrorist groups willing to use it as a weapon. Scarier yet, some may even be trying to develop a strain that is resistant to vaccines. This disturbing reality is the focus of this fascinating, terrifying, and important book.
A longtime contributor to The New Yorker and author of the bestseller The Hot Zone, Preston is a skillful journalist whose work flows like a science fiction thriller. Based on extensive interviews with smallpox experts, health workers, and members of the U.S. intelligence community, The Demon in the Freezer details the history and behavior of the virus and how it was eventually isolated and eradicated by the heroic individuals of the World Health Organization. Preston also explains why a battle still rages between those who want to destroy all known stocks of the virus and those who want to keep some samples alive until a cure is found. This is a bitterly contentious point between scientists. Some worry that further testing will trigger a biological arms race, while others argue that more research is necessary since there are currently too few available doses of the vaccine to deal with a major outbreak. The anthrax scare of October, 2001, which Preston also writes about in this book, has served to reinforce the present dangers of biological warfare.
As Preston eloquently states in this powerful book, this scourge, once contained, was let loose again due to human weakness: "The virus's last strategy for survival was to bewitch its host and become a source of power. We could eradicate smallpox from nature, but we could not uproot the virus from the human heart." --Shawn Carkonen
Start with this: It's not what you would call a fun read. A year after the anthrax attacks that paralyzed mail service, shut down Congress, and killed five American civilians, popular virus expert Richard Preston enters the fray with The Demon in the Freezer, a book aptly titled for its alarming premise: We are frighteningly vulnerable to biological weapons.
Preston begins with the events of Thursday, Sept. 27, 2001. It is almost three weeks after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and photo retoucher Robert Stevens is feeling unwell. After taking his family hiking in North Carolina, he complains of flu-like symptoms and starts vomiting profusely. The next day he develops a high fever and becomes incoherent. Then come convulsions, a coma, and finally, a fatal breathing arrest; by the time autopsy experts open him up, his lymph nodes are the size of plums. The diagnosis -- inhalation anthrax -- sends the Army and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into a near panic. And as more poisoned letters are discovered and more victims rushed to bivouac units, the authorities fret over their worst fantasy: Could the anthrax -- a noncommunicable disease treatable with early diagnosis -- be laced with the far more deadly smallpox?
Scary stuff, but here's where ''Demon'' gets klutzy. Boxed in by the competition -- which has already covered a lot of this ground -- Preston is forced into massive temporal jumps. After the anthrax attacks on Sen. Tom Daschle's office in October 2001, he flashes back to a 1970s smallpox outbreak in Germany. Then to the prehistoric origins of the virus. Then back to the '70s, with an engaging retelling of the smallpox eradication campaign, one of the greatest feats in the history of public health. Then it's off to an examination of the Soviet bio-weapons program in 1989. In fact, 140 pages pass before Preston returns to the 2001 anthrax attacks and makes a concerted effort to link them to smallpox. That connection boils down to an anticlimactic ''They didn't use smallpox, but, uh, they could have, and it would have been really bad if they had.''
What Preston has crafted here is another ripping real-life horror story -- one made all the more disturbing by his conclusion. We now know all too well that terror is no longer the domain solely of the impoverished and war-ravaged. And wanton death from disease, Preston tells us, could well be democratized next. “B+”
