medium-length brown hair that would have been otherwise unbelievable in fullness and color at his age, were it not for his tight, wrinkle-free, bronze skin and perfect complexion. He had the enviable tall, slender body that allowed him to jog, play basketball, or engage in any other activity outside shirtless, without making other people uncomfortable.
He went to UCLA, which, as part of my beloved Pac10, made him ok with me. After his wife died in a climbing accident, he took a job as a physician on Kwaj. Other than that, the only thing I knew about his career was that he had briefly worked at the CDC. He and his thirteen-year-old daughter arrived on the island on the same flight as Kate, the kids, and I had.
I timed it so that we would arrive at the door at the same time, and, after the obligatory cordial greeting, I jumped right to what was on my mind.
“Have you heard anything new about the plague? Any idea what’s going on?”
“I don’t have any magical lines of communication in my office. I know the same as you, Matt.”
“But what did you hear before?” I asked as we began to ascend the stairs. “Maybe all this is overblown.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, to my dismay. “I think this is the big one—the one we’ve always feared in the medical world—an extinction event—Armageddon.”
Normally, I appreciated his matter-of-fact approach. I could have used better bedside manner at that moment.
“It has long been feared that some sort of ‘super bug’ would come along and wipe out mankind,” he continued. “I mean think about it. You’re a scientist, so you must know that it’s just a matter of time before natural evolution brings us something we can’t deal with. Viruses are constantly combining in nature via re-assortment and creating new viruses, most of which are no worse than their predecessors and die without causing any harm. And we’ve generally been able to stay ahead of the ones that survive, thanks to the wonders of modern chemistry. We figured that a superbug would happen naturally all by itself one day, but we didn’t count on somebody intentionally speeding the process up.”
“What do you mean speeding up the process?” I asked as we reached the top of the stairs.
He held his hand on the door but didn’t open it. “I’m pretty sure it was engineered. Somebody created it.”
That bombshell left me speechless, so he answered a follow-up question that he must have come to expect. “I’m sure you’ve heard that it appears to be a combination of different viruses, one hemorrhagic and the other something like bird flu. We already knew that viruses can combine, and so this is not, in and of itself, exceptional. But what was not being said is that The Red Plague managed to retain the worst attributes of the component viruses. It is highly unlikely to have occurred naturally.”
I stepped back as someone opened the door, nearly hitting me with it. Obviously uninterested in our conversation, the man scampered down the stairs. Dr. Pepper grabbed the door before it closed, but we remained in the doorway to finish our conversation.
“What do you mean ‘worst attributes’?” I asked.
“I never learned the exact particulars of the disease before we were cut off,” he said. “But let’s imagine that the component viruses were Ebola and bird flu. Either of those would be sufficient to kill the host long before there could be sufficient recombinations to produce a viable second supervirus. In other words, it’s practically unimaginable for any host to survive long enough with both viruses for them to be able to produce a third virus with the ability to spread. The Red Plague is as lethal and contagious as Ebola, but worst of all, it’s airborne like bird flu. It is just thought to be very unlikely to have occurred naturally. It must have been done in a laboratory.”
“By who, though?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Take your pick.”
He slipped through the door and
He went to UCLA, which, as part of my beloved Pac10, made him ok with me. After his wife died in a climbing accident, he took a job as a physician on Kwaj. Other than that, the only thing I knew about his career was that he had briefly worked at the CDC. He and his thirteen-year-old daughter arrived on the island on the same flight as Kate, the kids, and I had.
I timed it so that we would arrive at the door at the same time, and, after the obligatory cordial greeting, I jumped right to what was on my mind.
“Have you heard anything new about the plague? Any idea what’s going on?”
“I don’t have any magical lines of communication in my office. I know the same as you, Matt.”
“But what did you hear before?” I asked as we began to ascend the stairs. “Maybe all this is overblown.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, to my dismay. “I think this is the big one—the one we’ve always feared in the medical world—an extinction event—Armageddon.”
Normally, I appreciated his matter-of-fact approach. I could have used better bedside manner at that moment.
“It has long been feared that some sort of ‘super bug’ would come along and wipe out mankind,” he continued. “I mean think about it. You’re a scientist, so you must know that it’s just a matter of time before natural evolution brings us something we can’t deal with. Viruses are constantly combining in nature via re-assortment and creating new viruses, most of which are no worse than their predecessors and die without causing any harm. And we’ve generally been able to stay ahead of the ones that survive, thanks to the wonders of modern chemistry. We figured that a superbug would happen naturally all by itself one day, but we didn’t count on somebody intentionally speeding the process up.”
“What do you mean speeding up the process?” I asked as we reached the top of the stairs.
He held his hand on the door but didn’t open it. “I’m pretty sure it was engineered. Somebody created it.”
That bombshell left me speechless, so he answered a follow-up question that he must have come to expect. “I’m sure you’ve heard that it appears to be a combination of different viruses, one hemorrhagic and the other something like bird flu. We already knew that viruses can combine, and so this is not, in and of itself, exceptional. But what was not being said is that The Red Plague managed to retain the worst attributes of the component viruses. It is highly unlikely to have occurred naturally.”
I stepped back as someone opened the door, nearly hitting me with it. Obviously uninterested in our conversation, the man scampered down the stairs. Dr. Pepper grabbed the door before it closed, but we remained in the doorway to finish our conversation.
“What do you mean ‘worst attributes’?” I asked.
“I never learned the exact particulars of the disease before we were cut off,” he said. “But let’s imagine that the component viruses were Ebola and bird flu. Either of those would be sufficient to kill the host long before there could be sufficient recombinations to produce a viable second supervirus. In other words, it’s practically unimaginable for any host to survive long enough with both viruses for them to be able to produce a third virus with the ability to spread. The Red Plague is as lethal and contagious as Ebola, but worst of all, it’s airborne like bird flu. It is just thought to be very unlikely to have occurred naturally. It must have been done in a laboratory.”
“By who, though?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Take your pick.”
He slipped through the door and
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