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Having started out the week in the Hart Senate Building, when Richard Preston's The Demon in the Freezer also started out there, but
a dozen years ago during the post-9/11 anthrax scare, it immediately had my attention. Admittedly I had picked up Preston's book last night
assuming it to be about listeria and other foodborne illnesses, but unexpectedly found it to be about anthrax and smallpox instead. I was
not disappointed by this change of topic, however one gets the sense in reading it that the book was about smallpox until the anthrax
scare happened, as the chapters on the latter seem less well-researched and break the flow of the story somewhat.
It was also an appropriate read for this trip because I have the geography of Maryland already on my brain. Much of the action takes place
at Fort Detrick, and just last night Geege (Cara's grandmother with whom we're staying this week) was trying to convince her granddaughter
that it'd be a great place to work after she finished her PhD. According to Preston's telling they come out as the competent agency during
the anthrax scare, with the CDC and FBI looking rather bumbling. Again this appears to be a source bias issue related to the anthrax part
of the story being a late addition. Preston's development of the tale around smallpox includes a cast of characters who, because of their
expertise, were called in to deal with the anthrax scare as well. As such that part of the tale tends to be solely from their perspective.
Preston's history of smallpox eradication is well-researched and includes the well-worn nods to the relationships between the actors there
and Silicon Valley. As a follower of Google, Larry Brilliant's role in smallpox eradication is a story I have heard several times before. Preston did a great
job of interweaving ancient history and the epidemiology of a disease so terrifying that many cultures, including modern ones on the Indian
subcontinent, have chosen to deify it. Unfortunately the book lacks similar historical depth on anthrax; most of the discussion around that
disease concerned methods of weaponizing it. At one point Preston recounts a demonstration by an American scientist and a Soviet scientist
defector on Mt. Catoctin where they heave powder in the air and watch the cloud drift toward Mt. Airy ridge. As I sat in Geege's
living room in her home on the slope of Mt. Airy ridge I found this particularly chilling.
But then again, government is the big business around here. Outside in the backyard with the dogs the other morning two helicopters flew
westward over Geege's house not 50 feet off the ground. Blue on the bottom and white on the top, either could have been Marine One if they'd
had Obama onboard. Geege later confirmed that flying in that direction they're headed for Thurmont, where Camp David is located, but if
they'd been heading in a perpendicular direction then likely they were transporting someone to a trauma center. Such is life so close to
Washington I suppose.
Obviously, having started reading The Demon in the Freezer last night and finished it this morning it was quite the page turner, if
not quite up to the level of The Hot Zone which I read almost two decades ago in high school.
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